Getting away from Vegas
by Belles.diner
Summary: Summary: Rory and Logan, before AYITL, I want to see how they started back up and I want to see them get out of the Vegas agreement. Also, Rory is successful and I'll probably make a few other changes because I felt like Rory and Logan deserved better. Okay, mainly Logan, a guy that looks like that cannot be evil in my mind. I just can't take it. Now complete. :(
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls, nor the characters involved.

Summary: Rory and Logan, before AYITL, I want to see how they started back up and I want to see them get out of the Vegas agreement. Also, Rory is successful and I'll probably make a few other changes because I felt like Rory and Logan deserved better.

Okay, mainly Logan, a guy that looks like that cannot be evil in my mind. I just can't take it.

"Well here's looking at you ace. "

"Logan you know full well that's not the line."

"Yeah but I had to get your attention somehow."

She wants to tell him he didn't have to butcher a classic movie line to get her attention. He had it the second he walked in the room. The second that she saw that jawline that made a nuns knees buckle. Or the tux that fit so snug it was practically apart of him. No amount of Bogart would be able to top those feelings.

"Next you'll be quoting Sabrina and I'll have terrible flashbacks of Colin professing his love to me. "

"Ah yes, the lovely Miss. Fairchild. Well, we can't have that now, can we Ace?"

He looks her up and down, noticing that the black dress fits her perfectly, like everything he's ever seen her in. She looks like she's been traveling a little too much, the subtle differences standing out as he notices the slightly sunken eyes that remind him of when finals were approaching, and she refused to sleep more than a few hours. Small things that show that the past 8 years have been rough for all parties. Reminding him of a few weeks ago in Hamburg, the one time he had seen her and didn't make polite conversation. He had randomly thought about her the night before, and truly hadn't stopped. So, when he saw her, at another newspaper event, one that he didn't even think she would be invited to, he chose to duck out. Avoiding the feelings that would creep up only ever so often.

That night she looked radiant. In a red dress that slid over every curve he had missed in all those years prior. She worked the room with a confidence he had seen her fake for years but now seemed genuine. Maybe she had finally realized all she had in her, especially after having, what seemed to be a successful career at the times. Or maybe, and more unfortunately he had fallen out of touch with her cues. Not knowing when she was faking it, or when she truly was the belle of ball. And now suddenly, every feeling of that night, and the night prior came back with a vengeance. Making it damn near impossible to take his eyes off of her. 

Rory looked him over, slowly finding it hard to keep her breathing even. He looked amazing, he always did, but tonight he looked more content, a natural ease about him that she was drawn to and that took her by surprise. She had thought about him a lot over the years, hell, she had run into him at events just like these and everything was cordial and fine. But tonight, a night where she is feeling run down, having been on a red eye the night before, she was kicking herself for not putting in the extra few minutes of primp, knowing full well that wouldn't be able to hide how truly exhausted she looked.

"Hey my darling! I'm so sorry I'm late." Suddenly all eyes turn to a man who for all purposes looks fine. Handsome, safe, unassuming as to the tension, sexual and emotional, filling the air. He had broken both of them out of their respective thoughts, or at least replacing them with new ones while the general undercurrent of things left unsaid flew between them.

"I'm just glad you could make it! Paul, this is an old friend, Logan Huntzberger, Logan, Paul." Rory, in a voice unlike her own, formally introduced them. She had forgotten she had invited him tonight, although it makes sense as they had been together for a few months, he lived in the city, and of course she had wanted to see him tonight. Hadn't she?

As both men lean in to shake hands Logan smiles towards Rory and whispers, "are you going to go on your speech about old vs. new friends. Because I thought that one was a real doozy." She wants to tell him to stop talking and to take that society smile and place it in an unsociety like place, however, she remains saccharine and remembers the very public arena they are in. But suddenly she feels his hand brush the lower half of her back and she is stilled. She wants to lean into him, almost as an instinct but she can't, it's not her place anymore and it certainly isn't his to do this to her, not here, and not now. She has someone that she is happy with, that is content and fine. She has an early Dean, and to find someone like that in adult years is almost unheard of.

Paul unassumingly hands Rory a sidecar, while Rory sends a polite smile and he gently holds her hand. Not her drink, he' not even having the decency to show everyone she is his, this guy might as well have a sign that says "Just Friends" plastered on his back, Logan thinks with a satisfied smirk that Rory quickly notices. Who does he honestly think he is with that fucking smirk that makes it look like he's in a wonderful joke with himself.

Quickly, in a dash to wipe that ridiculous smile off his face Rory places a hand on Paul's chest and thanks him for the wonderful drink. Prompting Logan to quickly finish off his scotch, trying to forget about the feel of her hand on his chest and the memory of Rory tipsy on martinis and kissing him in the back of his town car. The Rory she apparently wasn't with this Paul character. She hadn't been that girl in so long it didn't even seem like she existed. A woman who could write a piece cutting to every

Suddenly a flurry of silk and what seems like fairy dust comes and envelopes the group while a beautiful brunette quickly attaches herself to Logan. Rory can't help but gawk at this lengthy, beautiful, put together woman who was hanging onto a man that Rory herself had been figuratively holding onto for years, even if some those years were unconsciously, laying dormant just waiting for the moment that they both appeared happy and stable in new relationships.

"Bonjour my darling. I got stuck next to some old bore, she was rattling on and on about her newest drapes and who she hired to cater this insufferable— oh I apologize. I'm so rattled I forgot to introduce myself. Odette, and you are?" Well at least her personality didn't exactly match her beauty. Well that's just mean, Rory quickly chided herself, none of us are on the best behavior at these events, the façade has to crack eventually. And who was she to decide someone's character as she covets a man that isn't hers, while he stands there with another woman draped across his chest.

"Paul! And this is my girlfriend Rory."

The moment she heard the young woman's name, Odette recognized the woman next to her. There had only been one time she had visited Logan at the office and sitting front and center on his desk was a picture of the young woman standing in front of her. The woman whose framed face had travelled from London, to Palo Alto, to New York and back to London. Always being the first thing unpacked at Logan's new office and the last thing before the boxes were shipped. Odette looked the woman over, obviously the eight years had been rougher to her, the circles under her eyes, eyes that didn't have the same shine as the younger girl in the picture. However, her body was great, petite and mature, making Odette feel the slightest twinge of jealousy, even if her own looks were unparalleled there was still that lingering feeling of worry in the back of her mind.

"Oh it's so wonderful to meet you both, Logan, I desperately need to head home, would it be too much trouble if we left?" Yes, there we go, a way out, a way to get away from her and the look in Logan's eyes, which were now slowly shifting to look at his date again.

"Of course not babe, I need to say my goodbyes and then I'll meet you at the door in ten minutes. "Odette almost stopped him, offering to go with him, but she wasn't ready to hear whatever brush off he had at the tip of his tongue.

With both of them taking their leave, Rory let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. She quickly turned to Paul and asked if they could get going also and he happily agreed. Rory was trying to figure out what the knot in her stomach was, there was the ironic jealousy, that feeling she knew, but that wasn't what made her feel out of breath and disoriented. Maybe it was the fact that this was the first time they really interacted, the first time they had met seemingly significant others. A sense of finality to this situation that had been plaguing her for eight years. However, now the thought of closure seemed mean, hurtful, and downright unfair. The thought of losing him for good seemed as unfathomable as Luke giving up Lorelei again, as impossible as Rob Schneider making a good movie, she quickly paused remembering the first day of their actual relationship. The hurt quickly spread as she rushed away from Paul grabbing their coats and excused herself to the bathroom.

They had seen each other in passing, a quick hello, a small peck on the cheek. All things that have transpired were long put into boxes that weren't worth opening at this point. Why bring up hurt when each had found their strides in life. Logan had the publishing group, Rory had a column at the Times that took her to places she didn't necessarily want to be, but still she excelled. She seemed happy and content, not challenged like he used to do for her, but that wasn't his place anymore. As he saw her slip into the bathroom, however, an idea popped into his mind. One last challenge wouldn't hurt would it?

"So Ace, decided that now I'm leaving there's no other company that can compare and decided to leave as well?"

"Oh of course Logan, however did you know?" Rory smiled back at him, trying not to show how flustered she was that he decided to sneak attack her in the women's restroom.

"Lucky guess. I just wanted to say that you look wonderful this evening and it's great to see you so happy. Hopefully you aren't traveling to much, I feel like it was just yesterday I saw you in Hamburg."

"Hamburg, I didn't see you! Why didn't I see you there?"

"I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from inviting you up to my room." The twinkle in his eye, and the tone of his voice seemed unmistakable.

"Very funny Logan, however, I really do have to be going. I had a late flight, and I have an early assignment tomorrow." Rory quickly made her way out of the bathroom, brushing past him quickly, in hopes he would mistake her shortness of breath was out of exertion and not the feeling of being in close proximity to him.

He was settled at the door, waiting with Odette for their town car to take them back to the hotel they had for the evening. They could've stayed in his penthouse but he didn't feel like staying somewhere "homey" tonight, so they decided to take the opportunity to stay at a hotel. He watched her get in hers as well, going in the opposite direction he was heading, he wondered if Paul would join her tonight, the sudden thought making him sick, just as the car was pulling up. However before he got in behind Odette, he sent a simple message " _I wasn't joking ace, it took everything I had to resist that red dress."_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own GG, or any of the characters.

Rory had known he was joking from the second he had said that to her in the bathroom, what she couldn't figure out was why he said it, why he had trapped her in that bathroom when they both had people waiting for them right outside. She tried to push those thoughts away from her, knowing that she would never find an answer that was satisfactory for her. So, she made her way to Paul and watched as he got into her town car and with final look around she quickly got into the car and took Paul's hand. Heading in the direction of her upper east side apartment, one that had a whole room dedicated to her books, even if it wasn't a library originally. It was everything she had wanted in her home. Complete with small accessories given to her by her mom, from the clown pillow that had unfortunately been given to her, to the small desk that had stood in her room for years.

It even boasted a Yale wall, however, now instead of brochures there were degrees. A Bachelors and a Masters degree. There were pictures from her years at Yale that showed everyone from Paris, to Finn, to Tanya. She even had the Life and Death Brigade article stuck to the shrine and hidden behind it was a simple picture that had never ceased to take her breath away. The moment captured on film was her falling through the air, holding onto a boy who looked remarkably like the man who she saw tonight, *buzz* she quickly checked her phone, scratch that, make that the boy who was texting her now. " _I wasn't joking ace, it took everything I had to resist that red dress."_

She quickly stashed her phone, not wanting to explain a thing to Paul, poor sweet Paul. She looked over to him and remembered the good qualities, he had a good heart, he was sweet and unassuming. Luke and Lorelei seemed to like him, and she had seen both of them have good conversations with him, maybe that was a good enough sign. She needed to settle down, the fact that she watched her mom lean on Luke during the funeral for her grandpa, as she would stand by herself in the receiving line, seeing looks of sympathy for losing her grandfather, but also seeing another emotion, almost pity. Here she was, 30, single, and lost one of her best friends. Looking back on that day she decided to be content with Paul, content was okay, wasn't it?

Across town, in a lavish hotel that cost to much money, in a suite built for a family, housed a couple with a wall between them. "She looked familiar." Odette suddenly said, not fully able to look Logan in the eye but she couldn't miss that grin, that goofy school boy, I stuck my hand in the cookie jar, grin. He was smart and quickly made his face calm down, he always had a poker face, unless it came to her, it's why he could take Finn for all he was worth every Friday night that he was in town. It was a tradition started back when she had moved in with him. He would invite the boys over to play poker, while she would get dressed up to eat pretentious food, most Fridays she would breeze into the apartment, grab the martini he would have made for her, and sit within arms reach of him while he played cards for hours on end. So now, any Friday the four of his buddies were in the same state, they would find a way to strike up a card game. And still, after all these years, he would catch himself starting to make a martini about a quarter of the way through the night.

"Who looked familiar, babe?"

"Rory, I think her name was? She looked familiar, was she with Finn at one point? Maybe even Colin?" Odette knew, she knew that every word she said was making him more and more mad. To give him credit though, he held it in well. She could see him fighting internally, not wanting to let the anger or jealousy seep through.

"Uh, no, I'm pretty positive Rory has never been with Finn, and we all know Colin couldn't get someone unless he held his bank statement in their face. But honestly, she's a reporter, a well known one, you might have seen her from a byline, or a report on television. But I don't think we know her from a personal connection." His voice remained even, calm, like he didn't have a care in the world. That scared Odette, way more than she thought it was. It was beyond a business voice, he was putting on a show for her and she let him. Why bother seeing even more lies tonight.

As Rory made her way into her apartment, she quietly kissed Paul before he helped her unzip her dress. It had been 2 months of dating and she had asked him to stay tonight. She didn't trust herself alone with her phone and thoughts of Logan. Quickly flashing back to the time, he was in London, when they had more late-night phone calls, leading to more than one late paper. She had to forget about that. He wasn't hers anymore and that had to be okay, even if Paul wasn't everything she wanted, he was perfect on paper, and that was enough. It's fine he was never Bogart, Bogart didn't win in the end of Casablanca, but he did in Sabrina, NO! You can't think like that. This must be Casablanca, it has to be. As she said that her heart broke, she could almost hear the glass shattering inside of herself and she felt something she had not felt in years. The deep melancholy that only came out to play on particularly rough nights. Old anniversaries, the yearly reminder that she had tamed the whale, the day on the calendar that almost perfectly mirrored the one on her diploma. The day she lost him for good. Quickly she hopped out of bed. Not even remembering how she got into the position of snuggling up to Paul, not remembering the moment his breath changed to that of sleep. She threw on jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt and a light jacket. Swiftly heading out into the slightly chilly New York air, she wandered around, knowing she shouldn't be here, she should be home, safely tucked in. But once again, he made her do things inherently unsafe. Except this time there was no umbrella, no champagne and definitely no Logan.

Across town, he laid awake wondering what he was doing. He sent that text and saw that she had read it, damn you read receipts. Just sitting there taunting him "Read 10:48 P.M." he hadn't even been able to close the app when he saw the small writing switch from "Delivered" but yet here it was 1:22 A.M. and he was wide awake, knowing that Odette was furious, knowing she knew, and frankly, not giving a damn. Great, I went from Bogart to Gable. It's like a movie night filled with classics, she'd fill their table with junk food, she'd order from their favorite Chinese place, and she would make sure she had every movie ready to go in their DVD player. Their, a word that hadn't been used to describe them in almost a decade. A word he didn't think about regarding her for years. But seeing her 2 months ago in Europe changed him. There was no catalyst for the switch, no cosmic moment, no separating of the crowds to show him this goddess that should've been his. So, what made that day special from the moment six months before at the society event that she was helping with? Or the time before that when he saw her leaning against the tree at her grandfather's memorial. At each of those places he had seen her, and she looked good. But Hamburg, that messed with him, maybe it was the way she commanded the room as a reporter, she was an _Ace,_ fuck, that's what did it, there's the switch.

As a small, but frustrated sigh came from the other side of the bed, letting him know that his tossing and turning was going very noticed by his bedmate. Well, that's no way to think about your girlfriend. He stifled a chuckle at that word now. Suddenly feeling that the title didn't fit her anymore. She was a bedmate, an approved bedmate, an approved spouse, she was safe with his family. He threw on a shirt and boxers and walked downstairs to the bar.

"Scotch, double, neat, just, just scotch please."

"Saw reporter girl, didn't you?"

"Jesus Christ, Finn! What the hell are you doing down here?" Logan quickly stared at his friend behind the bar. His whole body now stiffened as he was caught a little too off guard.

"Well waiting for you of course! You asked to stay at my hotel, what didn't want to take Odette back to the place where Ace used to lay her head too?"

Logan's whole jaw clenched, the pure fury in his eyes would terrify any man, if that man wasn't a very drunk Finn.

"Oh, I still can't call her that? Well, I'll have to stop using that in our late-night messages then." Finn smirked, knowing his goading was getting to Logan and loved watching the steam pour from every inch of his body.

"I will ask one more fucking time Finn, what are you doing here, and why do you think this has anything to do with Ac- Rory?"

"Well I own this hotel; therefore, I own this bar. Last night you mentioned that you had an event tonight, and you mentioned it was an event for all you newspaper folk. Now what lovely woman of ours is a reporter? Ah that's right! _Our Ace._ " Looking over Finn got the exact reaction he had wanted to see, the slow and silent seething on Logan's face. "Anyway, we had noticed that anytime she was brought up you started calling her Ace again, so we figured that this moment, where you realize that you want her again, was only a matter of time. Then, once we found she had a date tonight, we just knew that it would be tonight. So, I offered to take the extra late-night shift because I've been waiting for you!" Finn looked a little proud of himself for how miserable Logan was feeling right now.

"How did you know she was going to have a date tonight?"

"Oh yes, Robert kindly offered her his services for this evening, and she very kindly brushed him off. We figured she was lying so that way she wouldn't have to spend an evening with Robert, but by the look on your face when I mentioned her date, she wasn't lying?"

"No." The single syllable would've held more venom if he didn't picture the wet blanket that was her date. "She had a date, he got her a side car."

"The buffoon. Next you're going to tell me she had to escort herself home."

"I wouldn't know, but she did leave with him." Ah, there we go. There the venom was again. "It doesn't matter. She's at home with Paul, I'm in a bed with Odette. We're fine. Everything is fine."

"Except you're not in bed with Odette, and she may be in bed by herself, all alone, without a big strong man to protect her. You know what, I just might head over there, make sure there's no monsters under her bed."

"Bite me, Finn." Logan quickly got off the bar stool and decided to hit the hotel gym, making sure that every frustration was out of his system before he headed back to Odette, knowing that in a few hours she would have more frustrations to throw at him.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own GG, or any of the other pop culture references made.

"Read September 19th"

A week, a freaking week and no response. There he was, back in London and staring at the same damn small words that he has been staring at. He didn't know what he wanted her response to be, he didn't even know if he could handle a response. The thought that she could brush him off without a second thought was making him furious. Here he was, once again, waiting for her. There have been to many times he had been on the receiving end of her voicemail, the unanswered texts, hell he would send a carrier pigeon if he thought they could make the transatlantic flight. He turned up the music that he had blaring through the speakers. Hearing the music flowing through the room he felt amped up. Like he couldn't stop pacing and wondering what she was doing, how she was feeling, and was she going through the same internal battle as he was. The tempo building up was causing his adrenaline to pump through him, so he found himself in his home gym, running on the treadmill hoping that he could run as fast as he needed to, hoping beyond all hope that he could calm down enough.

Right downstairs, passing through the London street was a black town car speeding through the streets, while Rory was attempting to apply any kind of makeup she could. Getting ready for the Talk of The Town piece she had to write on one Naomi Shropshire. The internal groan didn't stay internal as she thought about all the stories she had heard about her, but she was happy to be in London. Happy to be in a place they once roamed together before everything got blown up. Just as her thoughts traveled to him she realized that they were passing by the building where his London flat was back in college. She knew he was back in London, the minute he had come back to the company he had asked to be sent there. She smiled and looked back at his message. She had it memorized, how could she not have, she stared at it more times than she could count. Finally, she decided to hop in with both feet, tired of fighting what she was feeling ever since she saw him a week ago.

She quickly snapped a picture of Buckingham Palace as they whizzed by it, and sent the picture with a simple, _*I'll say hi to William and Harry this time, if you'll meet me for drinks at the Dorchester Hotel at 8.*_

As he went to go look at the message he had sent again, he saw those three bubbles of doom. She was finally responding, finally giving him something, this had to be a lifeline, right? The small _whish_ of his phone brought him out of his thoughts and he quickly looked down to see what she had said. This wasn't just a lifeline, this was a lifeboat, a whole rescue team, another cruise ship reaching the Titanic in time, well, not that far. He wasn't at the point of drowning, was he? As he looked at the half empty bottle of the finely aged, way too expensive scotch he realized he was a lot closer to drowning than he originally thought. And now Colin was going to be mad he wasted so much money, which is ironic considering the man could waste more money than anyone he had ever met. Speaking of, he really had to make sure Colin's new pub was doing well.

Looking back at the message he realized that he didn't want to answer her, he wanted to make her sweat like he had, but he would show up he just wouldn't tell her. But then what if she didn't come? Thinking he had blown her off, or worse that he was with Odette, no he had to answer.

 _*8:15*_

She smiled as she saw his response, fine, he can have the last word. She would be there, of course she would, it's why she had packed the red dress. The lucky dress that she didn't realize had been lucky until he had told her. The dress that had once made her confidence soar professionally, now made her feel alluring, not just commanding.

LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Finally leaving the interview that seemed to go on longer than the actual 3 hours, wait that can't be right, 3 hours? Oh my god, she had to get ready as she flew around her hotel room. Quickly showering she decided that she couldn't style her hair the way she wanted, so she threw it into a quick pony tail, threw on a semblance of makeup, and hurriedly zipped up her dress. Throwing on small heels, she felt her feet protest and decided that it wasn't worth the pain and replaced them with simple black flats. Much better, plus now she pretends that she wasn't hoping he would join her upstairs, or he wouldn't invite her to his place. Unless he had Odette there, if they were serious enough for them to have his or her robes, a morning routine, all the things that had defined a year and a half of her life with him. But if he had that with her, why the sudden flip between the two of them? He didn't have to text her that night, he didn't have to put his hand on her back, he didn't have to corner her in the bathroom, he didn't have to agree to meet her downstairs. Glancing at the clock, **8:12** , she made her way out of the room. Not knowing what she was getting into and wondering why she decided to do this. Then she walks into the bar, and he's sitting there with a glass of scotch in his hand, sitting in a dark leather chair, with a martini sitting across from him. Her drink, waiting for her, him waiting for her.

He looked at his watch, **8:16** , and then he saw her with that red dress on and he immediately smirked. Oh yeah, this was planned. The minute late, she had let him get the last word in with the message, but she had the control here and he hated that she knew it. But then again, he couldn't help but find it sexy that she was confident, that she was successful, and that she was everything he knew she could be. He didn't care if she was in control, he actually preferred it tonight. Lord knows he didn't have the strength to be in control around her tonight.

The smirk, that stupid smirk that had sent butterflies soaring through her whole body for years, from the first time outside her dorm room where she wasn't goaded, to just last week where he had seen behind the safe façade she had going with Paul. She was his, and he knew it, the second she saw the martini she knew he was being cocky and it made her feel happy, not content, not safe, but happy and like she was bound for trouble tonight.

"Kate says hello, the others weren't available to say but I figured a hello from the Duchess would be sufficient."

"Ah yes, William and Harry were with me, we decided to play cricket and Finn joined in, almost caused a National Emergency, but they do send their regards to a beauty like you Ace."

"How's it going Huntzberger?"

"Me? It's just a normal Saturday for me, what about you Miss World Reporter, what are you doing in London?"

"Talk of the Town piece, Naomi Shropshire, had an interview today, deadline Tuesday, completely exhausted."

"Wait, Naomi Shropshire? Looks like you'll need a few more of those then, I've heard the stories."

"Every one of them true, every single one. The interview lasted way longer than I thought it would, there were more empty liquor bottles by the end of it than I've seen since Finn. It was just exhausting. Almost didn't make it here on time, leaving you, poor baby all on your own."

He had to smile at her, the rant, the way she called him baby, all of it was perfect. He watched as she finished off her martini. "Actually, you were a minute late."

"Oh, I know." She winked at him, and even ounce of worry he had about tonight was gone. He was hers and that was it.

After a few hours of talking, one more drink for each of them, she was about to ask him up to her room when he spoke first. "My flat, it's just a few blocks away, but I'd like you to come with me if you're available."

He was testing her, was she available? Was she his again, would it be as simple as that answer. He knew it wouldn't be, he had Odette in Paris, working, shopping, no doubt using his name in certain circles. But if she said yes it could be that simple.

"That would be nice."

Not yes, but a positive answer. With that he grabbed her hand and didn't let her go through the London chill until he reached his place. The same place she had stayed years ago, and although the furniture was different she remembered all of it. Every place he kissed her, every breakfast he made her, where their Christmas tree stood, it was all rushing back. The feeling of being that happy and carefree, feeling like that could have had that forever was crushing her and suddenly the tears fell. Without a single word he kissed her again for the first time. She wanted to push him away, she wanted to remind him that this wasn't them anymore and that they weren't a couple. But every word would get caught in her throat, so she stopped thinking. She stopped worrying about the what ifs between them, they would be there in the morning.

He saw her crying, and he knew she was thinking the same things he had thought when he first came back to London. He knew there were two options, one they could sit there and talk this to death, leaving them battered and bruised emotionally. Or option two, he could kiss her. The could forget it for a minute and worry about it tomorrow. It was the easiest decision he had ever made, besides the decision to meet her at the bar that night. As he kissed her, and they forgot about everything for the remainder of the night.

LRLRLRLRLRLRLR

When they woke up, they fell back into their routine without a second thought. He went to the door and got the paper, starting the coffee pot on his way through the kitchen. He made his way to the master bedroom, watching her throw on his shirt and go to the restroom to freshen up for the morning. The smile never left his face as he remembered their Sunday mornings before he had blown everything up. While she was freshening up he started to make breakfast, setting the first few pancakes on her plate, he had just finished pouring her coffee when she walked out and reached for the paper. A smile permanently plastered on her face as well, mirroring the feeling of contentment he was sure he showed.

"We should probably discuss last night." He knew she was going to bring it up, but he didn't expect it before the first pancake.

"Eat your pancakes, and then we can talk about it."

"Logan, you're with Odette, we need to discuss it now."

"Well, you're with Paul!" The sudden intensity of her voice shocked her. One sentence ago he was joking and seemed fine. Now he was mad, he was furious, he was jealous.

"Paul, really, you're going to be jealous of Paul?"

"I'm not jealous, don't fucking put words in my mouth. But come on Rory, what are you doing with him? Last time I checked you hated sidecars, he barely even held your hand at that party, but please tell me what you see in him?" The words spat out of him, harsher than he had intended. "And let's not pretend like you were worried about Odette last night!"

"You're right, I wasn't. I didn't care about her, I sure as hell didn't care about Paul. I cared about you! God damn it. I've cared about you apparently all this time. I thought I put you into a stupid Logan box. Deep in the recesses of my mind, but no! I see you at some insipid party and suddenly I'm lost again. The second you put your hand on the small of my back I was yours all over again. But no! You left, you left with her! So, excuse me for only caring about what should have been mine for years, but I screwed it up, and I get that now. But damn it Logan you were supposed to be mine." She was mad now, she was yelling beyond what she even knew what was possible. She was words she had barely admitted to herself, but she was throwing them in his face in anger, retaliation, or was it just years of pent up energy and love coming back out?

"Are you done now?" Logan barely looked at her, knowing if he did he'd break right there. He'd pull out his phone text a simple 'I'm done, we're done' to Odette and they'd be together again. But somehow it didn't feel that was what was going to happen. "Listen, Odette is family approved, she's 'good breeding' she's smart, she wants to produce heirs, and she's intelligent. Hell, I thought I could love her until I saw you 2 months ago, until you made that room your own. Until I decided to deep dive into your work and saw what you have done, and now I can't stop thinking about you. I can't see Odette without thinking about ways in which she's not you. I'm sure there's contracts drawn up somewhere linking me to Odette, waiting for the time to be right for me and her to sign, but if this is what you want. If you and I is what you want, and you can handle this again, I'll untangle myself from it all. It will take some time, but I'll do it for us."

Rory stood shocked. She wasn't expecting this. She wasn't expecting him to say that, surely, he was going to suggest it was just an ex getting together with an ex for one last moment. It would have crushed her, but she was prepared for it. This she wasn't expecting at all.

"Do you want to stop seeing me? Because I don't want to stop seeing you." Those words, spoken again, letting her know this was the time where she could run, she could end it all right here.

"No, I can't stop seeing you. But there's to much we have to take care of right now. So, let's do this, when we're in the same place, at the same time, we can get together. I'll be back here on assignment, I'm sure you can sneak away to New York. Let's see what we can be in private for a while. Start to untangle from Odette, I'll get everything settled at home. When were together it's just us. Like Vegas, what happens there, stays there."

"I'm not doing no strings with you again. I can't do it again."

"I'm not suggesting no strings Logan. I want strings, hell I'll be a damn marionette puppet with you, but we must do this quietly, but I can't not see you. So here it is, take it or leave it. Can you stop seeing me? Because I refuse to stop seeing you."

"I think I've been a bad influence on you Ace."

"Let's go Huntzberger." She smiled as she led him back to the master bedroom.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 **Disclaimer: Don't own GG.**

 **A/N: I hate the lack of pop culture in this right now, to be honest, it's not my favorite chapter. But I am getting to a point…. I hope.**

It had been two weeks since she had boarded a plane headed for New York, which was the day after they had come to their "Vegas- Un- Vegas" agreement. He had promised her that Odette was a simple fix. What he didn't know was that his father had other plans. Mitchum knew a good match when he saw one. He wouldn't let Logan throw her away just to go back to the single lifestyle. So, a few months after they had graced the society circles he had papers drawn up, just like Logan had suspected.

" _Huntzberger Heir to Marry Odette Dubois."_

Logan stared at the headline in shock, he hadn't talked to Odette in almost 3 weeks. He had to call Rory, he had to get ahead of this before she woke up and saw what everyone else was seeing. The thought of her being alone in her apartment while she read this headline, or worse her family informed her, made him feel sick to his stomach and he knew he had to fix this. But before he could call her and inform her of what had happened he needed to get to the bottom of it all. He made the one phone call that he really didn't want to make but knew that it would be the first step in making everything right.

After that night in New York she had shut him out, expecting him to come crawling back to her. By the time she realized that wasn't going to happen and she tried getting into touch with him, he wasn't answering her calls. She knew why, maybe not the exact specifics of the freeze out, but she saw the difference that night, and it's why she tried to get them out of that event, it's the reason why she had froze him out in the first place. Rory Gilmore, she was everywhere suddenly. She saw the bylines she had written that Logan had hidden in the home office. Or that picture that sat on his desk, where there were no other pictures. Just that one single moment of his life was worth capturing apparently. Once Odette realized that he was a goner she decided to try to make him miss her. She put a plan in place that would show him what he was missing without her. Except he never took the bait, he didn't call her to fight for her. So, she decided to take the more indirect route and placed a call to one Shira Huntzberger and asked her for the best wedding planner she knew. And from there the rest was history, the next morning, plastered across every Huntzberger owned paper was the announcement of the century, and she saw her winning smile on the front page of the morning paper sitting on her kitchen island.

Imagine her lack of surprise when her phone suddenly rang with the only name she expected to see flashed across her. "Oh, hello Logan, how are you on this lovely day, have you been enjoying the past three weeks?" There was no mistaking that tone. There was so much anger in her voice, and if he didn't have Ace in his life again, and he wasn't hers, he would've been more contrite. That wasn't the case though, the case was that she had announced something that could ruin everything he had just built back up.

"Hello, my darling, I hear congratulations are in order on our upcoming wedding. Interesting, I don't remember bending down on one knee for someone like you? I think I would have remembered selling my soul to the devil." Interesting, he must have gotten his girl back. He was never this harsh, this lacking even fake politeness. This plan definitely wasn't going how she had intended it to. She thought that she had him, before he had seen her again they seemed to be on the right path and she figured that they could be happy at one point, so why not speed it up? Plus, maybe Rory would see the announcement and be spooked off. She thought the plan was foolproof. It wasn't until she heard the anger in his voice, that she realized that she hadn't just struck a chord with him, she had played the whole damn orchestra and he wasn't in the mood to listen to a minute of it.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, I don't know why you believed that I had proposed, but this is done, we are done. I thought the weeks of radio silence would be enough for you to get the hint. Apparently not, so here, I will spell it out for you, this is over." There weren't many things that angered him, but this was it. He could handle board meetings with his ass of a father. He could handle deadlines and printers not wanting to cooperate, he had even fought with a fax machine a time or two when really fax machines should be obsolete. This was the straw that broke the camels back and he wasn't going to hold back anymore.

"Oh, but Logan, sweet, stupid Logan. You are forgetting about the contracts. See it was only a matter of time before we were supposed to be engaged and so papers were drawn up, there is a plan in place for us Logan. I just upped the timeline, giving you the push you needed."

"I won't be dealing with the ramifications of this, you will. You will call whomever you need to call and get this taken care of, but this wedding will not happen."

He hung up the phone and threw it against the wall, but as he did he saw the door open and a very disheveled Rory walk in. He was surprised and happy to see her that it took him a few minutes to see the tears on her face.

"ACE! You're here, I was just getting ready to call you. You'll never guess what happ- " He was cut off as he looked down to what she was holding. A newspaper, featuring two people sharing a fake smile and nothing else between them. God that picture was so posed and vapid, his eyes momentarily flitted to the picture on his desk of him and Rory. This picture of them showed two people in love before they even knew it. He hoped she recognized the fakeness in the newspaper photo, but the look on her face was just devastated. He didn't just have to do damage control here, he now had to beg for forgiveness for a headline, and apparently proposal he had no part in.

"You see, I decided to surprise you today. It had been two weeks, and frankly the late-night phone calls weren't enough, although some of those text messages came pretty damn close, you always were a better writer than you gave yourself credit. I decided to take a week off work, show up here, get the flat ready while you were at work and have a wonderful evening planned for when you would come home. I had Finn give me his jet, he's here by the way, so I could leave the minute I was done at the Times. I came in on a Sunday, so I could finish all my assignments for the week, just so I would be all yours. I had this whole plan Logan. I wanted to do a grand romantic gesture for you because that is what you do, and I wanted to get the satisfaction for once. Now Finn decided he wanted to join because apparently, he had spent a whole 2 days in the office last week and was absolutely exhausted." She added an eye roll. "When we get to the airport there's a million newsstands, newsstands I would normally pass without a second thought. That is until Finn freaks out and tries to avert my eyes."

Of course, Finn couldn't play it cool. If he would have played it cool I could have warned her, or told her tonight, I could have gotten ahead of this just like I had planned to do. Here was this girl who loved me, who told me she wanted to be with me and who was making sacrifices and grand romantic gestures. Who after eight years was finally mine again for a few perfect days and a few long-distance weeks. But she was gone, wasn't she? She was hurt beyond repair thinking that I could have proposed to someone else.

"I saw this headline and I just thought, there is no way. There is no way that the Logan that I know from college, from society, from the time alone together, even from the last few weeks would ever not tell me something like this. Because the Logan I know, the person who you are deep down, has seen me hurt. Has been the one to hide things from me and you have seen the repercussions of that, and I have to believe that you wouldn't keep something like this from me. So instead of sitting an apartment and wondering all day I decided to come here. I decided to trust that this fake picture was nothing but bull shit. But Logan I need the truth so I'm here and I'm asking you to please give me everything I need to know to make an informed decision because I meant what I said before, I'm in and I'm here."

Logan had never heard her like that, she wasn't just upset, or determined, or broken, or disappointed, she was also hopeful, and trusting. It was proof that this relationship was different than the last time they tried. There wasn't even an accusation, there was just a simple request, 'explain this and tell me if you want to work through it.'

"Rory, I woke up to that headline. I've spoken to Odette and she planted the idea into my mother's head that she needed a wedding planner. I told her in very certain terms an engagement would not be happening, that anything between her and I was over and done with. There has never been a single doubt on who I wanted to be with. The night after that party in New York was the last time I had spoken to her until this morning. I was planning on ending things with her even if we wouldn't have worked out. Honestly, I thought I did end things were with her until I saw this. My god, you'd think 3 weeks of silence would have been a clue but apparently not. Anyway, she says that there are contracts, or paperwork, but so help me Rory I will get that situated. I'm here, with you, 100%. And it means the world to me that you came here to surprise me, then that you came to talk to me. It means so much to me because this time has to be different. We have to be better and we are so far, so thank you for being here and for talking to me but I need to know where we stand, I need to know what I can do to make sure that we are okay." The end came out like a plea, he could barely stomach the sight of her, but he made sure to look her in the eyes the whole time.

She crossed the room to his desk and leaned down to him and kissed him. "We're okay, WE are great. Is the situation surrounding us good? No. But if you are willing to untangle yourself the obligations then okay. But this has to be fixed. I will not be the other woman. I've been there, done that and I didn't particularly like boiling bunnies. I will not be a geisha, especially not for the man that I love."

"But, you'll still dress like a geisha for me, right? Because now I can't get that image out of my head." Ah, there it was. There was the Logan that she loved.

"Depending on how early you come home tonight baby." She winked at him and with a small kiss she left his office.

LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

She walked into his, no, their London apartment. At least that is how he had referred to it when he handed her the key before she left a few weeks ago. She saw that the groceries she had asked to be delivered had been put away, and she assumed that Finn had taken care of her luggage. That thought should really worry her more than it does. If anything was missing, she would stick Logan on him while she took her credit cards shopping on London streets. It may not be Logan's black card but it definitely had more of a limit than she was used to. It felt good to be able to spoil him, speaking of which she needed to make sure the other packages she had ordered for the weekend had arrived as well. As she started to make her way to the master bedroom she saw a figure she hadn't seen in years outside of a society party.

"Ah, Miss Gilmore, what a surprise. I assume you're here to congratulate Logan on his engagement?"

"Mitchum, how wonderful to see you. I didn't realize that you even knew where your son lived."

"Now Rory, please, we can be civil here."

"Miss Gilmore will do. Thank you." There were battle lines drawn. There was no where for either of them to go but neither wanted to be the first to back down. Mitchum however, decided that even if he would be the first to leave, he wanted to be the one with the last word.

"My apologies, _MISS_ Gilmore. Will you please tell Logan to stop by my apartment sometime this evening? Unless, your mouth will be to busy, maybe I should just leave a note, unless you're Logan's assistant now too?"

And with that he was gone. He had left her speechless for longer than she would like to admit but instead she focused on getting ready for this evening. Knowing that her and Logan deserved the night she had planned and that she couldn't let Mitchum ruin it.

LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Logan was getting ready to leave, before six even. Having a girlfriend who had been sending him picture hints from their apartment for hours would make any man leave early. That is until Mitchum walked in, and Logan knew that this night was not going to go as planned.

"You'll never guess who I ran into this morning. Or maybe you will? Brown hair, blue eyes, doesn't know her place? Ah, yes! Rory Gilmore! Now imagine where I ran into her at?

Oh yeah, tonight was shot to hell, was the only thing Logan thought for the rest of the tirade where he heard all about how she wasn't a good enough wife, she wasn't a good enough member of society, and she wasn't the plan.

 _The Plan_ , hearing that Logan was quickly snapped to attention. "What plan?"

"You and Odette of course, I was so happy to see you were willing to move it up. Now the wedding will happen the spring after next, it will have to be in Hartford, her family has already begrudgingly agreed. But we offered to pay and you know they couldn't resist that. Now until then, you will be expected at many events together. Her and your mother have a 'Google calendar' they share and you will of course be made aware of them. But this wedding, this wedding is happening. Regardless of who is in your bed this week."

"Rory is not a week fling. Rory is who it will be at the end of the aisle, I don't give a fuck about her role in society or what her occupation is. You certainly didn't give a crap about mom's role in society before you bed her so let's not pretend that you sit on a high horse. I will do some social engagements with Odette. I will make it look like we are a couple for one month more, to save face. But this wedding will not happen."

"Six months." Mitchum countered while ignoring every barb his son had thrown.

"Six weeks, six weeks or I walk out this damn door now and you find someone else to head up this division."

"Fine, six weeks." And with that he disappeared in cloud of sulfur, Logan thought.

Now he just had to tell Ace that these six weeks were just him untangling himself. That they meant nothing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing GG**

He left the office as soon as he was sure his father was out of there, cursing every car in front of him. He was replaying the "meeting" he just had with his father and wondering what in the hell he had to come home to tonight. He looked down at his phone to check the time and noticed that he had new message. _*Tonight, is about us, I don't want to worry about anything else, we can take care of it in the morning. *_

He sat in the back of his town car wondering what had been said to her, what she was thinking, and why she was willing to brush it off when he felt things imploding around him. But the second he walked in through the front door it all slipped through his mind. There was a trail of index cards, illuminated by candles and hung up on a string, showing him where to go through the house. Starting in the foyer there was a note "I want to hang my keys next to yours here every night." Leading into the kitchen, "I want to make a breakfast with our kids here for Father's Day." He smiled at that one harder at that one than he knew he could. As he followed the trail of cards through the hallway there were now memories written on some of the cards, of their Christmas in London, of their times when she would sneak away and surprise him and get away from the YDN for a weekend. As he reached the living room, right next to the fireplace there was another note "I want our Christmas tree here every year, with our family and friends and us. I need this, Logan." The notes stopped until he reached the door to the master bedroom, where a final note stood, "I need you Logan, and us. I'm in, this isn't just factoring you in, this is making the decision I should have made 8 years ago." Under the note was a 2 other papers, one was simply a resignation letter signed by Rory that was dated for the next week, and the other was a job offer for a Features editor position at the Sun. Just waiting her signature.

This was it for him, and suddenly he couldn't breathe. What if he couldn't make it work again, what if he screwed it up so royally before that eventually she realized that it isn't what she wanted. Here she was offering to move to London and for what? And then he read the note again, "For us." And then he couldn't get through the door fast enough, as he opened it up he saw her sitting on the bed waiting for him, she didn't look scared, more nervous, but there was an air about her. One that showed him she was more serious than ever before.

"This isn't a marriage proposal, so don't expect me to get down on one knee."

"Is this just a woman, standing in front of a man asking him to love her?" Logan tried to joke, but his shaky voice gave him away.

"This is me asking if you're ready. Plain and simple, are you ready for this?"

He handed her the offer from The Sun and simply said "Sign it."

LRLRLRLRLLRLRLRLRLRLLRLRLR

He watched her sleep peacefully as he slipped out of bed to go take care of all the candles. As he approached the foyer he saw the paper from this morning that he thought had ruined everything. Remembering what he spoke to his dad about earlier he went into his home office and saw where she had already set up her laptop, and a few of her books were on a new bookshelf in the corner. Damn, she was not going to wait for an answer, was she? The new confidence she had was inspiring, it was exciting, and it was hot as hell. That this woman who had barely jumped off of a scaffolding with him was willing to take this leap with him again almost made him run back into the bedroom and wake her up again. But he realized that there were more important things to worry about.

He shuffled through what seemed like an endless amount of papers until his eyes landed on the employment contract he signed when he decided to come back into HPG. He hadn't had many reasons to look at it before but he needed to see just how much power Mitchum had over him. Was it possible he could get out of this whole Odette bullshit? Was it possible that he could leave if he wanted to? He had the money to leave, he had the creative ideas to branch out if need be, there wasn't even a non- compete clause in here to worry about. "Cocky bastard." Logan accidentally said out loud. His dad was so sure he'd never leave that he didn't even worry about one more small piece of paper. Then he decided to go into his email to see the stockholder list. He knew that someone had bought up a few hundred shares a week ago, but he needed to see where he stood versus his dad.

Rory woke up to an empty bed, and all the candles blown out. Suddenly she heard Logan mutter something from the office down the hall, and she decided to walk in and look over what he was worrying about now.

"Logan Huntzberger, how are you not sleeping after what just happened? Because I know I would love to be asleep but noooooo, suddenly the comfy king size bed felt way to big without you there pushing me into a corner and stealing my covers."

"I don't steal covers, I just simply make sure you're not overheated."

"Whatever you say babe. Now will you please tell me what is keeping us from sleeping?"

"My dad, he wants me to continue to date Odette for 6 more weeks. I don't know what he feels like he could take away from me. I was so distracted last night when he stormed into my office that I didn't even think of what he had. But I'm looking over everything, I own almost the exact same amount of shares as he does, I have more money than I need for lifetimes, he didn't even bother to make me sign a non-compete."

"Cocky bastard." Rory said under her breath.

With that Logan took her face in his hands and kissed her with more passion than he thought he could have at 3 a.m.

"What was that for? Not that I'm complaining, I'd just like to know what to do when I want you to kiss me like that again." She smirked in almost a picture perfect mirror of his.

"Okay, that's it maybe we should end this, because that smirk is a little to good for my taste. And it's because that's the exact same thing I said to myself when I noticed it. But anyway, I'm just wondering why he feels like he can hold anything over my head. I can leave at any damn given time. I mean look at the stock breakdown, I can even buy some under the radar and have more control."

She smiled to herself as she noticed the one at the very bottom of the list, "LLRG Investments- 2,000 shares"

"How many shares would you need to take the control over? I mean, is it possible?"

"I would need about 500 shares to make it even."

"What would 1,500 shares get you?"

"It would get me out of a lot, but even though I have more money than I know what to do with, that is still a lot out of my own pocket, more than I feel comfortable with."

She walked over to her side of the office and pulled out a file folder with five little letters on top "LLRGI" in bold. Logan didn't even notice the new investor, to focused on the older investors and who he could speak to and possibly work on buying out. He didn't think that any of the new investors would want to sell so quickly. But as she dropped the file on the folder he looked at the folder, then at the computer.

"Good evening, Mr. Huntzberger, Rory Gilmore, founder of Lorelei Leigh Richard Gilmore Investments. I heard you're looking to invest into Huntzberger Publishing Group? I have some shares I'm looking to get rid of quickly. It was a rash decision to buy them really, I'm looking to sell at any price point." Rory quickly said, with a twinkle in her eye. When she received the inheritance from her grandfather she had no idea what to do with it. So, she started an investment fund, and when she came across HPG shares she would buy in, making her largest purchase last week. She had made the decision to quit the NYT the night before, it just hadn't been her dream in so long, and she decided to start putting her plans in motion. She was applying to any newspaper she could in London, even flying over without him knowing so she could interview. She had told no one about her plans, but with every passing day since they had gotten back together she knew. She missed him to much, and long distance wasn't enough but breaking up wasn't an option either. It was a no brainer, she was taking the plunge this time, he had put himself out there so many years ago and he needed to see that all the pain over the last eight years was worth it.

She had bought the shares because she knew it could be a good investment, she just didn't realize how good it could be. She didn't realize that when she decided to lay her credit card down she was protecting them, and their future. She was protecting Logan's sanity and showing him just how much faith and confidence, she had in them, and most importantly in him.

He stared at her in awe, she was handing him everything. An out, control, a future, she was giving him everything he had asked for years ago, she was giving him, her. So without another word, he ran into down the hallway, to the depths of his closet and went to the suit jacket in the corner and pulled out the blue velvet box. He had bought for her the day after he saw her in New York, it was a stupid impulse purchase, At least he told himself that it was. Truth be told, he spent 3 hours looking through 5 different stores before he found the ring. He sprinted back into the office and got down on one knee without saying anything at first.

Finally, when he could focus on what he wanted to say he took a deep breath and looked up at her. "Rory Gilmore, I screwed up so badly last time, I made a rash decision and walked out. In that time, I've put you in a box and tucked you away because the last thing I could do was think of you. Every time I saw you the box moved closer and closer to the forefront of my mind. Until a few months ago when you were suddenly all I could think about again. You were it for me, from day one, and although these past eight years have been hell, I'm so amazed at the woman that you are. You are intelligent, confident, successful, brilliant, funny as hell, and more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. You have an unwavering faith in me that doesn't even seem real at some moments and can be terrifying because I can't imagine what I ever did to deserve that vote of confidence, what I ever did to deserve you being the pillar in my life that you are. You are my recharge port when things go bad and my battery is drained, you're it for me. You have been for years, even when neither of us could see it yet. So I'm trying this, one more time, and this better be the last time I have to get on bended knee, Ace, will you marry me?"

"Yes."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own GG**

 **A/N: One, I didn't understand when I would read FF before why people loved reviews so much. And when I published this I was terrified of reviews, but you guys have all been so sweet so I just wanted to say thank you so much, for all the follows, favorites, reviews, views, just all of it. I've been thinking of writing and decided to start here and it has been so much fun, so thank you.**

 **I sat down and wrote out an outline and there is a reason why the "big obstacles" are getting resolved quickly. This isn't always going to be "and they lived happily ever after." But I can't do cheating, or jealousy, or Mitchum being a controlling ass constantly. I have the angst that I 'want' in mind, and it's going to suck to write. But it leads to a bigger picture, even if it isn't always perfect, you know? And now, to the rest of the story.**

 **LRLRLRLRLLRLRLRLRLLR**

 _ **Correction, Huntzberger Heir to wed Newest Sun's Editor, Lorelai L. Gilmore**_

After the proposal, Logan took the day off and stayed at the London apartment with Rory. They had both called Lorelai, at way to early in the morning for her taste.

"Mom, it's me, well it's us." Rory quickly stated, before her mom could even start groaning about early it was.

"Ok, I know the one calling me mom, who is the other one and why are you calling me before the red fern grows."

"Mom, it's before the rooster crows."

"I would have gotten that right if it wasn't so damn early. Rory, what is going on?" As patient as she was trying to be, she was exhausted. Sookie had just left to start Jonestown or something, and she was having a hard time finding a new chef for the inn and if she had to fight with Michel about that damn parking spot one more time.

"It's me, Lorelai, it's Logan."

"Wow, that was quicker than I expected." Lorelai chuckled as she finally made it to the coffee pot downstairs. "So, how did he ask you? Did you get a new ring?"

"Mom, how could you possibly know that already?"

"Well kid, if he didn't propose and you're calling me at 2 am for anything else, I hate you and you're disowned."

"Mom, I'm the new Features editor of the Sun, I really don't think the disownment is that scary anymore."

"YOU'RE WHAT!? YOU'RE MOVING?!"

Rory turned to Logan "Wow, didn't even need to call to hear that reaction, I'm pretty that sound traveled across the Atlantic itself."

"Mom, I'm moving. He has a life here, he has a home here, I want to be here. I have a great job, better than one I would have gotten at home. You know my apartment in New York never felt right, and I couldn't stay in Stars Hollow again. London works, the rain, the cold, I get to wear the cute boots that make me look like the Morton Salt girl that you made Luke order for me. Mom, this is it. I'm in with Logan, fully."

"Well, I would say I'm happy for you kid, but uh Logan, didn't I see that you're engaged to a French chick named Odette? Oh my god, Rory, did you change your name to Odette too? I can't take anymore surprises. And you know your grandma will have wished you changed your name to Emily or something." They all three involuntarily shuddered at the thought.

"That was a misprint, there will be a correction in the paper come Thursday morning, I can promise you that." Logan was quick to answer while squeezing Rory's hand. She had sent in her resignation, she had hand delivered her acceptance of the position, she even coordinated movers for her New York apartment. That was her plan anyway, Colin decided to buy it and use it as an Air BNB. And when she ran out of things to do she begged Logan to let them call Lorelai even though it was too early.

"Well, that will be a fun one to explain to your grandma." They suddenly remembered they had to call Emily and made a mental note to do that next.

"Mom, just we need you to be happy for us. It's going to be hell over the next few weeks. We need you to be our support, so please?"

"Without a doubt kid."

LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday passed in a blur, they had to get the shares to Logan without anyone who didn't need to know, know. So, with that finally in place, they made the choice to have the corrected headline run in the paper Friday morning, leaving them one more day of being in a happy cocoon before Logan's dad rained down, even if they did have the upper hand it was not a confrontation they were particularly looking forward to.

Rory laid in bed, enjoying her last few days of freedom before she started her new position on Monday, and as the news broke there would be people outside of their London apartment, when suddenly a door opened, and she found herself face to face with Odette who came armed with a suitcase and a garment bag.

"Rory, how nice to find you in my room, and with my robe on too, you really do have no shame do you? Although, it wouldn't surprise me if we weren't the only other women to wear that." Odette decided she'd make Rory feel cheap, used, and like Odette had felt ever since New York.

"This robe is yours? That's interesting, because I just got yesterday from La Perla, well, more like it was sent to me after a rather large purchase. See I wanted to stock up for my honeymoon and the wedding night, plus the honeymoon period after the engagement. I'd ask you if you know what that's like but there's only one of us here with the engagement ring on their finger so I'm sure you wouldn't know the feeling." Rory was done playing nice. She was done feeling like she was the other woman, she was done with Odette. There were no strings to her, there was just another woman whose spot in line had lasted longer than most.

Odette stood there with her mouth hanging open, wondering what Rory was talking about. What ring could she possibly be- and then she saw it. The beautiful square cut diamond, with smaller diamonds surrounding it and diamonds around the band. Settled on Rory's slim finger that was now being held in the air with no modesty what so ever. She knew she had to recover quickly, there had been a deal in place, she was going to use the six weeks to get what she wanted and to make Logan forget about Rory.

"It's cute that you believe that if you find that hidden somewhere and put it on, it mean's that he is yours. However, that's not how it works, not in this world. Society is no place for someone like you."

"Okay Shira lite calm down. I'm a Gilmore, I can buy and sell you just on that name alone, so we won't get into the other side of my family. Honey, I can host a D.A.R. event, get out a paper, make sure my fiancé and his friends are having a good poker night, and still manage to keep my man in my bed without breaking a sweat. Please don't ever for a moment feel that you have an ounce of power over me. Now, if you'd like to kindly remove your possessions from my apartment, before I call the doorman, and have you escorted. Thank you."

Odette didn't know what to do, so trying to remain a semblance of dignity she turned on her heel and simply said "It's fine, I have to get a new dress for my event with Logan tomorrow."

Before the door could close the last thing, Odette heard was "Logan shut your card off by the way, but I've heard the hostel down the way has a spare room."

LRLR

Across town, a door slammed open hard enough the walls rattled. However, the man at the desk never looked up, the anger in the air was palpable enough to know exactly who stormed in.

"Hello dad, nice to see you today as well."

"Cut the bull shit Logan, right now. Why did I get a call today about a shocking headline for tomorrow's papers? We had a deal, you would do six weeks of appearances to keep your position here. Need I remind you of all that this company provides you, or what I can do in this world for a girl who is trying to make her way into this business?"

Logan actually laughed out loud at that one. "Trying to make her way into this business? You do realize that she was the one who has built herself up on her own merit, right? She is the one who worked her ass off to get where she is now, she never used your name or mine in an interview in 8 years, 8 damn years dad. She's in this business because she can do it. It may have worked years ago when she was getting out of college, but what she has now? That is all her, and you will not take that away from her. And speaking of things you will not be taking away, this company. You see dad, I have the power here. I'm Frank Underwood here, I'm controlling everything. Now, due to my recent, real engagement. I'm feeling incredibly generous with you. I don't mind if you stay on in the Hartford offices, hell, travel up to New York for all I care, but from now on, this is my company. You see, the girl who never had it? She made sure to always have an ace up her sleeve, she's been buying shares for a bit, and last week she managed to buy a fair chunk of them, combine hers with mine and together we have more than enough. Now, like I said, I have been feeling so incredibly happy lately, so here is what will happen. You will support this union between Rory and I, that correction will go to print tomorrow morning, I will release a statement that Rory has prepared for the both of us. Or, we can go to the board, who will see all the wonderful profits I have brought to this company ever since you yourself asked me to come back. Decide very carefully what you want to do next Mitchum, because I won't let this end because you are stuck with this dynastic plan idea in your head."

Mitchum stormed out of the office, and as he stepped off the elevator and into the ornate lobby of the HPG London offices his phone began to ring. "Odette, the deal is off."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing

It had been 2 months, two months of figuring out how to juggle their schedules, plus time together, and now the holidays are upon them. To their family they had tried everything in their hearts to get back to Hartford, but in reality, they just wanted to be at home with each other. They were exhausted, both physically and mentally and they couldn't handle the craziness of all the different holiday celebrations, plus the inevitable wedding planning that neither was ready to work on. The initial reconnecting courtship was quick, the time before the engagement was virtually non-existent, both wanting to prove that they were in this. They knew what they wanted and had no qualms about moving at a lightening speed space to get more settled. But now that they were here, and they felt settled in and content, they just didn't see a reason to ultimately walk down the aisle.

Logan wasn't that surprised, Lorelai had lived with Luke for eight years so far, neither one of them gunning for marriage, neither of them pushing the other for something, however they also weren't communicating. Per Rory, they had barely ever discussed the big things in life. Lorelai and Luke, for as wonderful as they were, still had issues realizing that the other wasn't a mind reader. Logan loved the couple, but he could see some of their communication issues in himself and Rory and he refused to be the weirdest hybrid of his and hers parents.

"Hey, Rory?" Logan looked at the woman across from him in the office. She had her hair in the messiest bun he had ever seen. Strands of hair flying every which way, a pen in her mouth, another behind her ear, and one in her hair. You don't even use a pen anymore, it's all on your laptop, why do you still leave a trail of pens everywhere? He once asked her, teasingly. Now she made sure to have one anywhere she could just to drive him crazy.

"Give me one minute. 30 seconds if you don't distract me with your smirk." She rushed out, holding up one finger while furiously typing away. He kept his smile to himself, knowing that if she took too long he couldn't get out what he needed to and then the conversation wouldn't happen for another few weeks between their schedules, and his nerves.

"Okay, I'm all yours!"

"Well obviously, isn't that what the ring is for?"

"No babe, the ring is because you love me and I'm prettiest when I'm wearing a diamond ring and nothing else." Logan stopped thinking for a few minutes about what he wanted to say because now that's all he could picture. "Okay, stop distracting me. I need to talk to you."

"I'm not giving up this ring, or quite frankly this apartment. So, if you're ending this, prepare to call some movers." Just as she said this her computer dinged with another email, simultaneously his phone started to ring. Quickly shutting his device off he turned to her, seeing her getting ready to open the email.

"Alright, that's it come here." Logan picked her up out of her chair, shut her computer and set her down on the living room couch. "Rory, these past few months have been more than I could have ever expected, you're so much more than I could have imagined in my life. And I want to marry you, but right now things seem so crazy. There seems to be a million different things, pulling us in even more different directions. I've seen the wedding planning notebook you have, and by 'seen' I mean I've heard you slam it down and get frustrated. There is already so much on your plate that I'm wondering if that is something we should hold off on for now. Or we can elope, I don't care. I just watch you getting stressed out and it just doesn't seem that you're enjoying the idea of the wedding. Let's just figure out how to breathe before you worry about some ridiculous society wedding. I just want you to be able to plan the wedding you want without going even crazier. "

Rory looked shocked, and she was speechless. But one emotion Logan didn't see was hurt. She seemed fine with his suggestion, almost as if she had been wanting him to tell her the take a break at something. The truth was that she was so exhausted she could barely remember which way was up. There was something so frustrating about knowing that there was an expected wedding that she just couldn't bring herself to plan. A wedding with stuffy associates, or at a church she had never stepped foot into before, all of it just seemed to ring false in her mind. Taking all of the joy out of the planning, which was already hard to get to excited about when she barely had the energy to get excited about the holidays.

"Logan, thank you so much. I promise, our wedding will happen, and it will be amazing, but the thought of just being engaged and just being committed like this right now seems so great. I've been running ragged with the new position, the move, trying to make sure that mom and grandma are remaining close even though I'm an ocean away, the fight with Mitchum, it's just been so much. I need to focus on us and the job and then we can cross the wedding bridge when we get to it. But there is one thing I wanted to talk about with you."

Logan looked relieved that Rory was actually on the same page he was. "Shoot Ace."

"Well, we haven't discussed kids, and I'm on birth control now. I just didn't know what we wanted to do about the idea of kids. I personally would want to be at my job for another 6 months before we really do anything, but it is something I've thought about. If you haven't or if you aren't ready, then that's fine. I just thought since we are here we might as well get the conversation going and figure out if were on the same page, if there is a common ground, or if the wedding should be postponed indefinitely." Rory quickly rushed out, hoping that he would see she wasn't trying to pressure him but needing an answer. Even if it wasn't the answer she wanted to hear, she need to know where they were at overall.

"Kids sound great Ace. I'd like some more time with you, I'd like our lives to level out a bit before completely doing an upheaval and adding kids. But if you just say the word we can start working on that."

"Oh, thank god!" Rory breathed out, holding a breath at the thought of his answer. She knew she couldn't have handled if he would have said he wanted to start today, but also the thought that he might have never wanted kids also made her feel sick too.

"Now that the heavy stuff is out of the way, can we please discuss dinner because I've never gone this long without eating since I've met you."

"I'm good with whatever, just please order extra for left overs tomorrow, I don't know about you, but I don't plan on leaving this apartment at all tomorrow."

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL

There had only been a few moments in Logan's life when he had been really scared. Almost all of them circled around Rory. He was petrified when she all but gave him the ultimate out of their no strings relationship and almost left. The moment when he had to face her for her answer to his proposal, and now this moment. The moment where she decided that their apartment was not sufficiently decorated for their first Christmas together in their home. Well scared might be an exaggeration, right along with her response to the horrors of not being properly Christmased.

"Ace, god I love you but calm down."

"Logan, sweet, poor Logan. I can't calm down. This is our home, this our life, I want to spend our first proper Christmas together and make it special. So, if you would like to not participate that is fine, I have my own money, I can do it. You can get coal in your stocking for all I care, however, I am going Christmas supply shopping."

"Yeah, you are woman, hear you roar, I'm going with you calm down."

6 hours, 10 stores, and a healthy dose of Christmas later, the whole apartment was decorated from top to bottom with more decorations than Logan had ever seen crammed into an apartment this size. There was Meet Me in St. Louis playing in the background as Rory placed the last few ornaments on the tree that was in the exact corner she had written down on the card. After that talk about not rushing the wedding, and just taking some time to breathe they both noticed a distinct difference in the other. Rory was able to joke more, call Stars Hollow more, and even pretend she didn't love when his ego got out of hand. Logan had finally started putting the phone away at dinner, he was able to actually watch a movie without worrying how many emails he had missed, and especially now that he was out of his father's crushing thumb he was actually home more on the weekends.

"Hey Logan, I was thinking, September 3rd would be an excellent day to get on a plane, escape to Italy and just get married, don't you think?"

"That's almost a year from now, can you really wait that long to be Mrs. Huntzberger."

"Wow, when you put it like that, maybe we should push it back a few more years." Rory stuck her tongue out at him.

"I'm just saying, that seems so far away, I know I said being married wasn't something we had to rush into, just the engagement apparently. But I didn't expect you to want to wait that long. It sounds like you have it all planned out, so why don't we just push it up a few months? Please?" Logan looked genuinely hurt, and she could see the pain of the rejected proposal behind his eyes.

"How about this, May 2nd. It's a pretty healthy middle, we can invite a few people. But I really want to get married in Italy, I just want to disappear just us for a little while. Maybe start working on the baby topic then too?"

"I think a two-week long wedding and honeymoon in Italy and Greece sounds amazing. Since we have that planned, let's book everyone's tickets and then we're done with all of our Christmas shopping!" Logan was now smiling like a kid in a candy store, and she saw that even though he had tried to let her not worry about the wedding it meant more to him than he had let on.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"We have to invite your parents Logan, it's only polite."

"Or, we could not. Yes, that's a wonderful idea good idea Ace!" Oh, if looks could kill, Logan would be dead.

"Logan! We have to invite them, I'm not saying I hope they are coming but they have to come. We're already getting away from the society wedding which is enough to send your mother to an early grave, if she isn't invited I'll have to go into witness protection. Do you want me to change? Dress up in a wig, and change my name?" Logan's grin turned from amused to intrigued and devious in an instant.

"You mean like that year for my birthday where you we reenacted—"

"No, it will be nothing like that, and you won't get anything like that again if you do not at least call your parents. Now, and I will not hear a single groan, or moan, or what ever other noises can come out of that mouth besides 'Mom, dad, would you like to join us in Italy for my wedding?' And if you'd like to include how wonderful and beautiful and successful I am, then far be it from me to stop you."

"Fine. FINE! But I'm wearing the Top Gun jacket tonight."

"Feel free to wear it, I make no promises."

Logan was dreading this call, he had been since they set the date and he knew that it was only a matter of minutes where the good mood he had developed after teasing Rory would come crashing down into a pit of anger and crankiness. It didn't matter that his dad had reluctantly backed off, or that he had power, a fiancé and a career he loved. His dad could destroy that good mood with a simple, condescending tone. Thank god he wasn't seeing him in person or he'd wipe that infuriating smirk off of his stupid face, and oh my god I'm turning into Rory. With this terrifying thought in mind he called his father and was thankful for the moment when his voicemail picked up.

"Dad, it's Logan. We have a plane leaving for Florence, Italy from the La Guardia airport in 2 days at 6 a.m. it is then coming here to pick me and Rory up before going to Italy. Once we are there we are getting married at the gardens of the Villa Gamberaia. Feel free if you'd like to come, but if you are there you are cordial to every guest on that plane, you are nothing but kind to my bride, and so help me god if there is one toe out of line I will make sure that you fly coach home and for the rest of your life."

Logan felt so proud of himself, he had picked a wonderful spot for their wedding, a wonderful honeymoon suite, but nothing was compared to the week and a half they would spend in Greece once the wedding festivities were over.

RLRLRLRLRL

Rory stared at her bags that were completely packed, with the exception of one single thing, something that had travelled with her all over the country on the campaign trail, that had been one of the main things packed in any bags before, but this time she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Her birth control pack was brand new, they could push trying to another month, but she just didn't want to. They had a long conversation a few months ago about it, and he said he was happy with where they were headed. She shook her head thinking about how his mood completely shifted after that day in December where they set the date. More importantly with what happened that night, if she knew setting a date was that important she would have set a date their first night back together.

But he seemed open to the idea of taking the next step, and oddly she was the one who put the wall up for a few more months, she was the one who decided to wait until the wedding was over and the fact was, the wedding would be over in 3 short days. As she sat staring at it she realized that work was much calmer, the people there respected her, she had more freedom than she probably should, and she was happy. That hit her like a ton of bricks, in a year she had gone from 'fine' to completely, unexplainably happy. So, with that in mind, she took the pill pack and threw it in the trash, just in time for Logan to walk in the room, see what she did and wink at her without a word.

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL

2 days later Lorelai, Luke, Colin, Finn, Honor, Lane, and Emily were all waiting in the Huntzberger's plane when a town car pulled up and a very stoic man, and a woman dressed in all black got out and proceeded to make their way into the plane.

Colin quickly pulled out his phone and texted Logan _*They're here and dressed like they're headed for a funeral. *_

 _*It's all fun and games until they realize that it will be theirs if they don't get over it. *_

And just like that, the plane was off and now 9 people were stuck for an international plane ride that would make mere minutes feel like hours.

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL

Rory had gotten completely lost in her work when Logan popped his head into the office.

"Hey, Ace? We need to leave for the airport in 10 minutes, are you coming, or do I need to marry Lorelai instead?"

"Sure, babe, go ahead."

"Not the reaction I was hoping for, but okay, come on, what are you reading?" As he crossed across the room he looked over her shoulder. "ACE! You promised, you promised no more work until after we get back. Matilda said she would take care of it, you trust her, you trained her, you need to put the laptop down. We will have our phones, I even promised you could bring your tablet, but no laptops, for either of us."

"Yes you do look good in that suit, but I don't know how that is important right now."

"What? Rory, did you pay attention to anything I said?"

"No."

"Okay, that's it! No more computer! No more anything. I am carrying you downstairs to the car, we are getting on a plane with our family, the one's we like and the one's you made me invite. We are getting married and then I am spending 2 weeks with you uninterrupted. And if I hear one more word with the exception of 'Yes Logan,' and 'Wow, it's so big!' out of your mouth I will throw your cell phone in the river."

"I am not telling you anything looks big."

"I was talking about the honeymoon suite, don't work blue." And with that he threw her over his shoulder and took her downstairs to their awaiting limo.

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL

She walked into the cabin of the plane where her mother had handed out custom wine glasses with their wedding date and the location of their wedding. She was incredibly touched and happy that the queen of darkness sulking in the back couldn't ruin her mood. Even Logan, who noticed his parents immediately and who had silently seethed in the corner, had seemed to lighten up once he saw Colin and Finn's wedding present to them. It was engraved flasks that looked just like the wine glasses Lorelai had ordered. Plus, Colin tried to unload a new Colt he had purchased, but he didn't want to pay for the shipping to London. Crap, Logan thought, he really needed to check out that Pub that Colin bought.

"Hey Ace, remind me when we get back to check out the Knight's head pub, it's about 4 blocks away from the apartment."

"Do I want to know?"

"Colin."

With an understanding smile Rory went back to her conversation with Honor until a shrill sob sounded from the back of the plane.

"Mom! What was that for?!" Logan quickly yelled, a lot gruffer than he should have been around his almost in-laws but he couldn't help it.

"I just hoped that you would finally come to your senses Logan. I mean honestly, we are now in the air and on our way to this dreaded affair, and for what? Just so we can all take bets as to when this disaster would end in a divorce? What a complete waste of time and money. Odette would have planned a perfect society wedding. Everything would have been up to our standards, it wouldn't be this rushed and cheap affair."

"Cheap affair!? You realize that just because it is not catered by the worst caterers in Hartford and that the tapers aren't exactly 6.5 inches apart—"

"6 inches apart." Rory interjected with a smug look on her face.

"Oh of course! 6 inches apart, heaven forbid that half an inch is there."

"Hey! Half an inch can make all the difference." Finn and Colin both shouted from their seats.

"Even if the tapers aren't exactly 6 inches apart, this wedding will be beautiful. A beautiful woman, who actually cares about be will be walking down that aisle. One more peep, one more stifled sob, one more single comment out of your mouth will be the end to your involvement here. There is no other way that I will tolerate your presence here. Rory was the one that invited you, not me. If you'd like to talk about all the impolite criticisms you may falsely have about this union, and this wedding, you will direct them at me because I didn't grow up in a loving family that taught respect, unlike Rory, so I have no problem telling you exactly how I feel about your behavior. Now, if that is all, I would like to break in this flask." And with that, Logan turned to Luke, Colin, Finn, and apprehensively his father, who took one of the flasks and they all cheered.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**

 **A/N: The next few chapters will be fluffy, and hopefully fun. I just want to address a few questions about the angst, there won't be any main character's death. Writing the fact that Richard is gone is hard enough. I said a few questions, I think it was mainly just that one, lol.**

The moment Rory looked down the aisle (A/N: Put the altar as the cover photo.) she stopped breathing. She said Italy, she said small, and he delivered. He found a garden right outside of Florence that would remind anyone that magic can exist. It was an old, almost run-down ruin of a garden but it was beautiful, and quaint, and exactly what she had been looking for. She needed quiet and simplistic, because their every day lives lately had been anything but. Marrying the man that she loved needed to be slowed down, it needed to be treasured, and it needed to remind her of the nights at their home and not the nights of a society gala. You know, if their home was in a garden in Florence and she was wearing a dress the cost of a car.

It was a 10 a.m. wedding, Logan would have opted for the second the plane landed, but Rory wanted at least a few hours to get ready and get her bearings. But now here she was. Standing at the end of the opposite end of the aisle while a man who had tried to give her everything 9 years ago was willing to try again. He was standing there in a traditional black tuxedo, while all of their friends and family sat on either side. They had forgone most of the traditional wedding party moments, they just wanted themselves up there because despite every moment of support, every pep talk, this had to be about them in this moment.

Logan had seen many versions of Rory, he had seen goaded Rory, fancy Rory, business, lounging, sick Rory. But he hadn't seen this version, this version of Rory was almost untouchable. Her dress looked remarkable, it was the only part of the wedding she really took interest in and wouldn't let him see. It was an off the shoulder, long sleeve gown with a train that extended just a bit on the ground. The lace was covered with flowers going up the dress, mirroring the gardens that they were standing in, and the veil was just as long as the train, with a smaller one covering her face for now. She was glowing and happy and perfect. He had never been happier for them, in any moment he had never found more peace and happiness. It was because of her that they were there, it was because she fought and made sure that he knew where she stood, it was because of how much happiness she showed him that he decided to buck the dynastic plan. It's because of her that he had control of his life for the first time since those few brief days between when he quit and when he proposed. 9 years, 9 years it had taken them, but they were here and so damn happy.

She had been so calm once he had taken over the brunt of the planning, she never freaked out about the wedding or what they were getting themselves into. She never seemed to have cold feet, and while he had momentarily lapse of panic, he remained as calm as possible. And now he knew why neither was worried. Because this was it for them, this was the moment that each had worked for, despite every moment of heart ache, every empty bottle of scotch or empty pint of ice cream, they had found their way back.

As Lorelai watched already seen her daughter in the gown, she wanted to see Logan's face. She wanted to make sure that her daughter would have that same glow about her for as much as possible. Then she saw his eyes, and she realized that the tears that were spilling out of her eyes matched Logan's as well. The amount of doubt that had plagued her for 9 years, wondering if she pushed Rory away from who she was supposed to be with washed away. They had both grown up, they had both come into their own, and now they weren't just merging two very established lives, they were melding them together, making a home and bucking more traditions than Lorelai had ever managed, even with getting pregnant at 16. When she suddenly felt two strong arms around her and a whisper in her ear, "Marry me?"

RLRLRLRLRLRLRL

Thank god the minister had decided against the "speak now or forever hold your peace." As everyone in that crowd would have made sure that the woman in black would have spoken up if given the chance. However, all had been quiet from the icy tundra to left of the altar as Logan slowly slipped the ring on Rory's finger and then grabbed her to kiss her.

Shira left immediately following the ceremony while everyone else, including, much to everyone's shock, Mitchum, decided to head to a pizza place just 20 minutes from the ceremony location. They spent the rest of the day and evening surrounded by friends and family and more wine than anyone knew what to do with.

Finally, Rory and Logan told everyone to please stay, that the tab was taken care of and that they would see them in a few weeks when they returned. However, right before they were about to leave her mother stopped her.

"Hey kid! I just wanted to tell you that you are incredibly beautiful, you look so happy, and I'm the happiest I've ever been. But I have news, and I want to tell you, but I don't want to ruin your day."

"OH MY GOD LUKE PROPOSED!"

"How did you know? Wait, you're not mad, I mean you just announced it to everyone! You aren't mad?"

"Of course, I'm not mad! But if you elope, tell me this time."

"Ah, funny girl. I am going to miss your wit and your ability to make your mom relive dark periods of her life while you're gone on your fancy honeymoon. Oh, look at that, clock is striking midnight. Logan, you better get your princess here home before she turns into the wicked witch again."

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL

They had holed themselves up in their Grecian apartment that they had decided to rent for the remaining week of their honeymoon. It overlooked the water and Rory knew she should be down there enjoying the sites, sounds and most of all tastes of Greece. But then she looked over at her husband and realized all of those could wait as she saw what he had brought in for her.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes, I'm watching it again, but I still don't understand why, on every vacation, you make me watch the Power of Myth. It was a tradition you started with Paris, Paris of all people. Of all the things we should be doing on our honeymoon, this is what you want to do?"

"It's tradition Logan! And you promised, at least one showing, and so now that the bed is properly mussed. Don't do the eyebrow thing it's not Christian. We can carry on with our viewing! And then I promise we will walk downstairs, to that beautiful water and we will swim, and eat and do whatever else we can while we are here, but we are watching this right now!"

 _*How's the honeymoon going man? We're all back home safe and sound, Colin has heard rumbling of an event coming up in a few months, did you hear anything about it? If so, we need to plan, can you make it to us or do we need to once again make the long journey over to your neck of the woods? *_

 _*Not to my knowledge, get me the details, or have Colin, just let me know. *_

 _*Wow, quick response, shouldn't I be not hearing from you for weeks due to being 'indisposed.'*_

 _*The Power Of Myth is on. *_

 _*You're on your honeymoon mate, show her the power of persuasion instead. *_

 _*Just find out the details of the event. *_

"Hey ace, it sounds like a meeting might be taking place soon? I'm not sure but Finn was just texting me about it. Would you mind if the guys came to London? We can always put them in the hotel down the street, that way they won't disturb us and—"

"Babe, I don't care, they can stay with us. Hell, I think I have a conference I need to go to anyway next month. I would have told you about it earlier, but I received the email this morning and technically we weren't supposed to be communicating with the outside world, so I was willing to lie to you to keep up the façade. Because that is the amazing wife that I am. However, since you have zero issues breaking our agreement, I might as well tell you now. And as for the guys coming over, I never care." With that she turned back to the longest 6 hours of his life and waited for the worst part of the honeymoon to be over and done with.

RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL

They spent the rest of the week exploring as many pockets of Greece as they could before they had to head back. After the initial slip of the outside world they both promised no more miniseries, and no more communications. So, the moment that they arrived back home they were bombarded with emails and phone calls that neither particularly wanted to work on. With a quick kiss they both settled into their sides of the office and faced the incessant notifications head on. Sometimes, if a conversation got particularly heated one would step out into the living room, or in the case of the moment with an editor needing to be let go immediately, Logan very quickly left the apartment. When he came back through the door 3 hours later made his way down the hallway.

"That is enough work for today, I've brought Chinese home, were putting the laptops away and I'm spending what was supposed to be our last day of vacation with my wife. Who is now passed out across her desk." He leaned over and saved the latest draft of what she had been working on, he decided to try to gently nudge her to wake her up. Nothing. Then a few kisses anywhere he could. Once again, no response. So finally, he went into the kitchen and started opening up the food.

"Is that food? Oh, thank god!" Rory mumbled as she made her way into the kitchen.

Yep, there she is, without fail. "So, ready for an early night?" He smirked at her while he finished getting out the rest of the food.

"I was not asleep, I had a headache, the computer was bright, simple explanation really."

"I did a strip tease and you missed it all, shame really. I even danced to _Pour Some Sugar On Me_ and not even a flinch. All that wasted talent because you 'had a headache.' Remarkable, really, how well you can block out the whole world without being asleep. I'll need you to show me how you do that, so I have a new trick to test while I'm in the budget meetings tomorrow."

"I've seen the dance; the headache was sexier." She said with a quick wink as she made her way into the living room.

"Well now you've just challenged me Ace! And it is going to be far from an early night for you now." Until he had tackled her to the couch and they spent the rest of the evening eating and enjoying their home with it being the first night they were there as a married couple.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 **Disclaimer: I once, again, own nothing**

 **A/N: I probably have 5 more chapters until I'm done admittedly, this has been so much fun I can't even describe. We're getting to the angst of this, but it will be resolved. Anyway, thank you all so much again for everything.**

It was an unseasonably warm November evening when Logan walked into their apartment, he was late, which wasn't a usual occurrence, but he still felt awful. Made even worse by the pitch black that greeted him as he walked in. Every light was off, there was no glow from the tv, the light above the stove hadn't been turned on which was usually something Rory did before she went to bed. And for how unseasonably warm outside it was, the apartment felt cold. He looked in the bowl and saw that Rory's keys were sitting just where they always were when she was home, but he still couldn't shake feeling like there was a piece of this home missing.

As he walked further into the home, he smelled the faint smell of something burning and when he got closer to the kitchen and flipped on a light he saw a salad made sitting on the counter. One plate had defrosted steaks on it, and a distinct odor of burned potatoes coming from the now turned off oven. He made his way to the back door and saw them open, how is it that with the air outside this room still feels stale?

"Oh crap, is it an anniversary? God, she was so happy today, what did I miss." He whispered to no one particular. Finally, he decided to just call out, "ACE!" but her voice never came through the walls, he didn't hear anything, the keys and the food were the only things showing she had made it home.

As he continued through the apartment he became more frantic, checking the living room, the bedroom, and the office with no sight of her or the clothes she had worn to work today.

LRLRLR

Earlier that day

Rory woke up like normal, got her coffee just like she should have, and took a shower right as Logan was getting out. The biggest difference was the huge grin on her face. The one that Logan couldn't place at all but made him smile right back at her none the less. She had been so happy lately, they both had. In the five months that they had been married they had fallen into such a rhythm it felt that there was such a level of contentment that a small smile was always on both of their faces. But this smile that Rory had, it took Logan's breath away. She seemed elated, more than he had ever expected her to be and he didn't know what had put that smile on her face, but he wasn't about to ask. He just wanted to keep that smile on her face. So, he stopped himself from prying, smiled back at her and gave her a quick kiss as he walked out the door.

Rory took a little extra time throughout the apartment, she was in such a great mood, and she didn't want to spoil it with work. With that in mind she carefully selected a perfectly acceptable business outfit, slowly slid on her heels, and decided to take the morning off. She wandered down the streets of London, enjoying the business of the city. Remembering how only a little over a year ago she was coming to interview Naomi Shropshire and then her world got turned upside down. She fell back in love, harder than she ever thought possible, she got married to a man that hadn't stopped caring about her, and they built a life. They both had careers that made them feel fulfilled, even if Rory's wasn't exactly what she wanted and as she was wandering down the street she decided it would be a good time to really look at her surroundings. Only then did she realize that she was a few blocks away from Logan's building and she was starving. Making her way to the building she found her way into his office.

"Ace! To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Well, I wanted to see if you could do lunch today?"

"Of course! Let me move some things around and then I'd be happy to take you to lunch. Pub food sound okay?"

"Perfect."

At lunch Logan had asked about her day and Rory admitted to just needing some time to herself this morning to take a breather.

"Ror, is everything ok?"

"If I make a change, if I decide that being an editor isn't for me, or that I'm not enjoying it. What you would you think?"

Logan stared at her in almost disbelief, she looked so happy this morning, did something happen? He would support her either way, but he still felt a sense of unsettledness as she asked.

"Well, I mean, where is this coming from? What would you like to do? I have papers we can put you at if you'd like to be a reporter? I'm great with what ever you are wanting to do Ace, you should know that by now. But I'm just confused on where this coming from."

"It's nothing to get worked up over Logan, I promise. It's just been something on my mind. Figured we had a quiet moment here and I would ask you about it. I'm great Logan, seriously, I'm so happy. This morning was just such a good morning and so quiet and it just made me think a lot."

He wanted to ask more questions, how could he not? This girl had her dream job, and she was questioning whether it was for her? He fought every natural urge to push her into talking, but Rory couldn't. Not about this. "So, how damaged is the card after you went to the bookstores this morning?" Logan decided to ask, a smirk playing on his lips.

"I didn't go to a bookstore, just walked around the town." Logan's smirk dropped instantly. She had a whole morning to herself, an impromptu morning at that, and she didn't even attempt to buy a new book?

"Wow! Thank god you had a nice day for it, huh?" Logan didn't know what to say.

Rory smiled at him, truth be told she was just free this morning that it didn't even feel like a bookstore morning day. She felt so reflective on her life, on where she was and what was to come that she didn't want to escape into a fictional world for the morning. She just wanted to live in her own for a few minutes. So, she told Logan that, originally wanting to hide how she felt. However, the smile that kept growing wider on his face proved that she made the right decision. He had looked so concerned that something was wrong that hearing that things were so right made him as happy as could be.

When lunch ended Rory made her into her office, she approved some stories, made an edit that would be sure to anger the seasoned writer who submitted it, and when 5:30 hit, she knew she should stay late but she was too excited to get home.

Rory made her way to the corner store, grabbing 2 steaks, potatoes, some peppers, and everything to make the salad she would always make at the vineyard, along with a few other necessities. She came home and got dinner started, chopping up the red potatoes and peppers and starting them in the oven, and while she waited for that she even prepared the salad, knowing that she would have to give the steaks her full attention when it was time. She had the drapes open allowing the last few minutes of the natural light in and nothing else, even cracking open the balcony door to let the warm afternoon air float in.

As she got everything prepared there was one last thing sitting at the bottom of the bag, a single box of pregnancy tests, this morning when she woke up she had realized that she was late. 6 days late to be exact. It was all she could think about all day, every pram she passed by on the sidewalk this morning, the baby store she saw with the crib set in the window that she had almost bought out of sheer impulse. She had been so happy all day, barely able to focus on work and how much the thought of working those long hours didn't appeal to her as much anymore and that maybe such a high stress job wasn't what she wanted right now. She knew she was pregnant, the test was just a formality at this point, but still she wanted to surprise Logan with it. It had been a year since they had originally brought up having kids, almost 6 months since they had started trying, but it was her first time being this late. There had been times where she was a few days late, but 6 days was something that had never happened.

As she went to the restroom she noticed a small bit of blood but thought nothing of it, it's not my period, it's normal bleeding. She had been reading about any and all symptoms she could be facing soon, and this wasn't unheard of. Knowing she had a few minutes to go before the tests were ready she went in to shut off the oven. As she bounded into the bathroom, ready with a gift box holding a onesie for Logan tonight, she saw the tests, and she realized that the bleeding wasn't an early pregnancy symptom. The stress, the lack of eating lately, had all gotten to her and made her late. Without warning, without understanding, she crumpled to the ground.

RLRLRLRL

Logan had searched their apartment, he tried her cell and it rang on her side of the bed, and it wasn't until he saw the faint light of the bathroom did he check in there. He had prepared for a lot, her to be in the bubble bath, her to be getting out of the shower, what he hadn't been prepared to see was his Ace in a ball, holding a onesie to her chest. She was sound asleep, but he could see where the tears had fallen and before he woke her up he saw the negative pregnancy tests on the counter. Without realizing it, his heart broke a little too. They had been trying, but he didn't know that there was a distinct possibility that it had been this month, and with confirmation that it hadn't happened he felt more disappointment than he had originally thought he would.

He leaned over to pick Rory up and laid her on their bed, and as he did, she stirred. Realizing she was still holding the onesie she looked at Logan and started to cry again. "I really thought that it was it this month. I was 6 days late, I was going to prepare a meal for us and tell you, I was so sure about it babe. It didn't even click that I might not be. And when I saw it Logan, my heart broke and I don't know why."

"Shh, shh, shh, I feel it too. It's okay. It's okay. Just sleep, please for me, Ace, just sleep."

As she slowly drifted off to sleep, he crept out onto the balcony. Looking down at the streets below he allowed himself to be upset, to realize that he wanted this more than he had let on, and clearly so did Rory. He also hated seeing her as upset as she was. With that in mind he made some of the easiest phone calls he had ever made. The first was to his office, asking them to clear his schedule for ten days starting the day after tomorrow. He had some yes men that could handle a few of the meetings, isn't that what they were there for? Next, he called The Sun and told them the exact same for Rory. Yesterday he would have thought that she would be mad at him for calling her work for her, but after earlier today, and especially after tonight, he wasn't so sure. And quite frankly, he didn't care. She needed a break.

The next phone call was to Colin, Logan arranged for them to stay in what was Rory's old apartment that Colin had bought. The final call was the one he was dreading for only reason; how did you tell your mother-in-law that you are bringing her daughter back to the states because she's hurting in a way that you can't understand?

"Dragonfly Inn, this is Lorelai."

"Hey Lorelai, it's Logan. I'm not sure when you talked to Rory last but—"

"Oh my god, is everything okay? Do I need to come there? I have airline miles, or mom does, or Luke or someone." Lorelai said, with only using one breath.

"Rory is okay, well physically. She thought she was pregnant, we had been trying and she found out she isn't, and she is taking it harder than I thought she would. I don't know, it just seemed like we could use a break. I was just giving you a heads up that we will be home the day after tomorrow. I need to meet up with the guys, and I was thinking that you could spend a few days in New York. Take her to the spa, do whatever she needs that I can't do with her. Would that work for you?"

"Of course! Logan, I'm so sorry. But yes, I can definitely do that. Just let me know the day and time and where to show up. And Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you so much."

"Anytime."

RLRLRLRLRLRL

Rory woke up to the sound of a suitcase rolling down the hallway, and she immediately became furious. "I'm upset Logan and what you're going to just leave on some business trip!? Are you kidding me right now? Logan, I need you, send someone else-" And then she noticed it was her suitcase. "You're leaving with my suitcase?"

"Wow, no I'm sorry I wanted to surprise you. We're leaving tonight, we arrive tomorrow. We're going to New York. I'm sorry I didn't wake you last night, but I wanted to let you sleep. I've already cleared your schedule for the next week and a half, we're staying at your old apartment, Colin tried to gouge me on rent though bastard, and you and your mom are going to have some bonding time."

"I'm so sorry, I just assumed and got upset and I'm really sorry." The look of guilt on Rory's face made Logan chuckle.

"It's no problem Ace. I mean don't get me wrong, it came out of nowhere but it's okay. You're all packed, we just have to stop by my office real fast and then we will be off, if that's okay? But then it's just a little New York getaway for us. It's fun being here in our little bubble, but we need to step out every now and then too, don't you think?"

"I think it sounds like a great getaway, thank you."

The moment the wheels were up on the airplane, Rory was back asleep, and Logan really looked at his wife. Her eyes looked exhausted, her body looked a little skinnier, and he realized just how much this job had taken out of her. He would never ask her to cut down on work, but he did need to ask her to communicate more. Maybe she missed the reporting side of things, she always was a great writer, maybe that's what was weighing her down? With all those thoughts in his mind he decided to send one more text message to Finn before falling asleep.

 _*We need to prepare a buck- up session, be prepared for a meeting while I'm in town. *_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**

"Mate what is going on?"

Logan had dropped Rory off at the apartment and had been prepared to settle up next to her for the next few nights before he went out with the guys and her mom showed up. However, Rory all but pushed him out the door. She said that just a few hours she wanted to be alone but she would call if she needed anything. To make sure that he actually went out she called Finn and Colin and begged them to come get him. Before he even had a chance to protest Finn was busting the door in trying to get to them, and all but kidnapped Logan.

"I'm not sure how much Ace wants me to share, it's just been a rough couple of days and she is so upset and so stressed. I just wanted to get her out of there, away from London, and all the other worries she has while she's over there. At least here she can focus on her family and movies and books. She just needs a break, and so do I but she just looks so different to me lately. It just makes sense to get her away from there and I decided to get her away from there for a few weeks."

"Well Huntzberger, sounds like you could use some stress relief too. We're going to saddle up next to this bar, forget about whatever it is you need to forget about, and then I'll kick your ass in some poker."

"I don't want to get to drunk, if Ace needs me I need to be able to get home."

"Okay, I will stay sober tonight, I will hold onto your phone, you will relax." And with that, Colin took his phone and Logan downed his glass of scotch before grabbing another one.

Meanwhile, at her old apartment Rory walked around and looked at all that had changed. She had poured herself a glass of red wine and stared at what used to be her Yale wall. Her wall that had all these memories that seemed so distant but somehow so close to her now. She was married to the man that was in the hidden pictures. He was out with his friends that had been in some of her favorite memories, and the memory of her first graduation was washed away by that night in their apartment. But as she sipped on her wine, a drink she felt guilty about having even with the circumstances, she still couldn't help but choke out a small sob at what she worried wouldn't be. She had so many wonderful memories of her life growing up, she wanted to do all of those with her—no, their children as well. She wanted them to have a college wall, even if it was Princeton. She wanted them to find out how amazing journalism was, or that they loved walking on tight ropes, she wanted them to have every happy memory she did.

With this in mind she sat down at her old desk that Colin kept in the apartment and began to make a list. Except what started as a list quickly turned into paragraphs of memories of her witty dialogue with her mother, the horrible night of the Hayden dinner, the pure innocence of her first kiss, it was all there on a word document just staring her in the face. It wasn't until 10 A.M. when she saw a very hungover Logan walk through the door that she realized that she had written all night. As she guided him and herself to the bed, she decided that once they got some sleep they would look over what she wrote.

It was 6 p.m. when she woke up to the smell of pizza and she slowly made her way into the kitchen. She had totally forgotten about what had happened last night with her writing until Logan quickly crossed the distance of the room and picked her up and kissed her.

"ACE! This is amazing, I mean don't get me wrong, it's a rough draft. But babe, this is so much fun and great and how did this start? When did this start? I didn't mean to snoop, I just didn't have my computer and wanted to look something up and it was just sitting there. And by the way, you really have stolen before haven't you, if they would have known you were a repeat offender you may not have gotten off so easily with your community service!"

"You got off easy, I do distinctly remember you being able to jet around Europe that summer!"

"Not the point Ace, I want answers. What brought this on?"

"Well last night I was thinking about my old Yale wall and all the things I want our *voice breaking* kids to have. And I wanted a list of things they could have and things I had growing up and it just spilled out." Logan immediately hugged her.

"They'll have all of that, I'll make sure they have all of that. But Rory, can we talk about what you did there? You wrote a book, well not exactly, but you wrote an outline. You did something amazing. I'm so proud of you."

"Logan, it's nothing, hell it's less than nothing. It was just mindless, and it just came out. Please, please don't read too much into it."

Logan didn't want to push her, he knew she needed to figure out what she wanted. But, he saw so much passion in those words, passion he hadn't seen in a long time and it took everything he had not to show her the pride he was feeling.

"Well, I've gotten pizza and movies. I figured we could have a quiet night before your mom comes into town."

"That sounds amazing Logan, thank you so much."

LRLRLRLR

"As much as I love this visit, I'm worried about you kid."

"Mom, I'm fine. I just had a great day and then got some bad news and it was just a lot of emotions in one day."

"That would be great, if I believed you at all."

"I'm not liking my job mom. I'm just not, I thought I would love being an editor. But I don't, I want to write. I want to show people how passionate I am through my words and not by how well I can approve a layout. Then when I was late, it just seemed like I had an out if I wanted it. I could choose to step back if need be, I'd have an excuse to bring to Logan. But then I wasn't, even though we've been trying. I just don't know what to do or what to tell him."

"You tell him the truth. He wants you happy, any man who gives your mother his black card to cheer you up only has your interest at heart because he certainly isn't caring about your bank account. Rory, talk to him. Ever since you guys got back together you've seemed to be able to talk, so why is today any different? Ror, he's hurting too."

"So then why isn't he talking to me?"

"Why aren't you talking to him?"

RLRLRLRLRLRL

Logan promised no work on this trip, but Rory was gone and there was a crisis so he walked into his New York office and threw himself into the emails he had waiting for him. It wasn't until a few hours later where he looked around at his surroundings. What a complete waste of space, he thought to himself. I'm never here, and here's this massive office with my name on it, and for what? Status? God, this is ridiculous.

"Logan!"

Well that will break you out of your thoughts. "Yes dad?"

"What are you doing in town? Have you even alerted the London office you were here? You can't just up and—"

"Dad shut up. London knows full well I'm here. I was dealing with an issue that came about under your direction. I know what the hell I'm doing, it's been some trying past couple days so just don't start." Logan had started off the conversation with so much strength and conviction but towards the end of the conversation he had faltered and his voice cracked. There was just too much pressure going on right now and no matter what he did he couldn't get that weight off of his shoulders. The last thing he could handle right now was his dad stepping into a place he had no place in.

Even though things had gotten better between them and even though he had accepted Rory, things were far from great. Logan couldn't bring himself to open up or break down to his dad.

RLRLRLRL

There was a moment, it was fleeting but it was there. Where Rory forgot what was happening in her world, where she forgot the stress she had been allowing to pile onto her. She looked up from where her head was perched on his chest and she just admired him. This man that had given her so much, and made sure she was whisked away because he saw her fault lines cracking under the surface. Maybe that's why she had the hard time writing the note? Maybe because he did everything for her and she couldn't even have this conversation face-to-face.

Logan woke up to a cold bed, there was no smell of coffee, no sounds of a shower, and no Ace what so ever. The coldness reminded him of when he found her that night on the floor of their bathroom, shit, had that really been only a week ago? As he made his way through the apartment he found the letter sitting on the kitchen island. When he picked it up he was sure he was going to find her rings fluttering out of the letter as well. He was so scared to read what she had to say, but even her handwriting calmed him down. It didn't matter what had happened between them, she calmed him down, and he knew he had to read what she had to say.

" _Dear Logan,_

 _I'm scared. That's a way to start this out I guess? I'm terrified of what I'm feeling. Everything was okay that morning, it was a great day in London, you looked amazing that morning heading out to work. We had a great day at lunch. But then I got into work and I wasn't happy. Despite the high I was riding when I thought I was pregnant, the work wasn't making me happy. How do I tell you that? How do I tell you that I want to leave a wonderful job that most would kill for? But Logan, I want to leave it so badly, I want to be a writer again. When is the last time you heard of an Ace editor? If this is something you can't support I understand, we can work through it I hope but we can work through it. I just didn't want to see the disappointment on your face._

 _Love,_

 _Your Ace (Reporter?)"_

This?! This is what she couldn't tell me to my face, is she kidding me?

 _*Ace, I read the note, come home, or tell me where to meet you. But I need to see you. *_

 _*I'll be back in 20 minutes. *_

In that moment Logan knew what he had to do. He printed the memories she had written down and got out her notebook and a red pen. By the time she walked in the door she was amazed at the sight in front of her. There was Logan, hunched over a desk with files all around him. It wasn't until he looked up at her that she felt herself breathe again, there on his face was a smile that she reassured her the files weren't divorce papers. As soon as she thought those thoughts he was picking her up and twirling her.

"Ace, you want to quit your job and become a reporter? Great! You want to be a quiz maker like the crazy chick in Gone Girl? Fantastic, I draw the line at you faking your own death but other than that, go crazy! But I still think you should see what I have prepared." And with those words he grabbed her hand and led her over to the desk that he had just vacated. As she looked at the desk she saw a whole outline that he had prepared.

"Ace, I loved your memories, I love your voice, I think you should write about this, what you know and what you are passionate about. Write about you and your mom, or your childhood. Just write it all Ace. Stay home, work at your leisure, if you'd like you can freelance with some of my papers. Babe, I want you happy and content. Don't ever be afraid to ask for what you want from this, it's your life, and yeah some things will affect the both of us, but right now we're on the same page, so please take this leap for yourself. You took a huge leap for me last year, don't hold yourself back now."

With tears in her eyes Rory realized he meant every word he had just said to her. "I thought about going the Gone Girl route but you're the one better at scavenger hunts." He gave her a pointed smirk. "Logan, I want to write, I think freelancing sounds great, and this book sounds like it could be a lot of fun. But I want a baby. I didn't realize how badly I wanted that until it wasn't an option. It felt like suddenly the wind got knocked out of me that day. Even though we had been trying this month just felt like it was it. I think that the moment it was taken away, that was the moment where everything else felt like it crumbled too, with the exception of you. Thank you for being my rock."

"Rory, I'll always be your rock, but in the interest of full disclosure, I broke a little bit too at that negative. It's only been a few months. We will keep trying I promise. But for now, we have an interesting evening planned for tomorrow, so we need to get a lot of rest."

"It involves a folk singer doesn't it?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing**

 **A/N: I will probably have some filler/ fluffy chapters because I want some time to pass but I don't want to rush this story.**

Logan had slipped out of bed earlier than he should have but he had to get everything ready. Why he thought he could leave Colin and Finn to do anything is beyond him. So, he left the apartment for a short while, bringing in an assortment of pastries and preparing a pot of coffee that Rory could wake up to before he slipped out again. New York was bitterly cold this morning, and he would have preferred to go back into the warm building, back into the even warmer bed, and fall asleep for the next few hours but that wasn't an option right now. Right now, he had to prepare to give his girl the night of her life. Then after the preparations were set, he had to head to the office to look over some numbers he had asked his secretary for, putting a plan in motion that had popped into his head just the day before that he hoped would combine something great for Rory, and profits for his company.

Up in that same apartment that Logan was dreaming about, Rory woke up to an empty bed which would have made her heart ache if she hadn't made her way into the kitchen to see all that he had left for her. She just figured he had to work this morning, or maybe after last night he had to take a breather. That thought sounded better and better to her as well, so she made her way to the closet and decided to get dressed and take a walk around the city she called home for so many years. Wasted years, she thought. Sure, she had a job she loved, truth be told she missed the Times, but she wasted that time without him and without this life that they've built in a year. A life she didn't even know she could ever have again.

She wandered back to her old apartment a few hours later, as she made her way though the home she noticed that there was a box sitting on the bed. As she opened up the box she noticed a black masquerade mask that looked like it had been made with lace and nothing else, until you picked it up and noticed the weight it had to it. Underneath the mask was a note _"Wouldn't want you to interfere with the integrity of the event, would we Ace?"_ Under the note was a black dress, that had sheer long sleeves and made it look like the dress had cut outs all throughout her torso. The rest of the dress matched the same lace look that her mask held. Looking at the clock, she had a feeling that the "event" would be in a few hours so she decided to get ready at a more leisurely pace than she normally would.

Logan walked in 4 hours later to the sounds of Sonic Youth blaring throughout the surround system. He remembered how happy they had been that day, how in sync they were and the next day things had blown up in their face. Tonight, though would be perfect, it would be a perfect mix of their college days with a hint more of sophistication. Walking into the master bedroom he saw she was still getting ready at her vanity while wearing only undergarments before putting on the dress she had for the evening, he leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek and quietly whispered "You're making it very hard for me to want to leave tonight Ace." But just as quickly as he had said that, he disappeared into the closet to get ready for the evening himself. Twenty minutes later they both met out in the living room, both wearing the masks that had been bought for the evening.

Rory looked him over, dragging her eyes over the man that somehow was her husband and appreciating the view very much. How that man could work a small amount of stubble and a smirk was nothing short of amazing but throw on a suit and he would put an Armani model to shame.

"I have an eye for suit sizes as well." Logan winks at her as he notices her staring, actually more like gawking but he decides not to call her out on that.

"I'm sorry, it's just damn my husband is hot. I mean that ass, and just wow." Well, that response wasn't expected.

"Excuse me! I feel taken advantage of right now, I am an innocent young man and you are trying to corrupt me."

"Oh, I'll show you corruption Mr. Huntzberger. But that will have to wait until later, aren't we running late for a ball?"

"Calm down Cinderella, there's no ball."

"Then why am I wearing a mask, and a dress?"

"I just thought it would be fun." Logan shrugged trying to hide his mischievous smirk, before turning to lead them out to the streets of New York and into a waiting car. As the car door opened there was a cacophony of sound.

"How can the three of you make more noise than a stadium of full of U2 fans? I mean honestly, it's three of you people and my ear drums are blown."

"Based on that grin on Logan's face that's not the only thing that's been—"

"Finn so help me god if you finish that damn sentence."

"We just decided that we were excited to see you, and, in that dress, we were even more excited."

"FINN!" Rory yelled at him while everyone else in the limo just had a child like grin on their faces. "So where are we headed?"

"Well! We're all masked up, we all look fantastic, so obviously we're going to hit the town!"

And from there the night was on. There was no shortage of champagne flowing in the back of the limo and Rory had never felt freer than she had this evening. She was with 3 people who made her let her down, who showed her that it was okay to not be perfect and she wasn't about to let that go, the pressures of what ever else was going on could wait until tomorrow. With that in mind she poured her second glass of champagne down her throat as they stopped at their first destination.

The first stop was a bar at the Plaza where they sat around and discussed memories from Yale and the boys filled Rory in on things she had missed in the "dark years." The more the discussion of their time apart was brought up the more Rory snuggled into Logan. It wasn't until Finn had noticed a group off in one of the ballrooms that Rory noticed she was perched atop Logan's lap and had her head resting on his shoulder.

"Look at that lovely wedding over there!"

"Finn, while you may have the same hair color, you are not Vince Vaughn, we are not going over there."

"Just for a moment, love, please?"

She tried to say no but before she could Finn was off and so was Colin. As she reached where they were, everyone had discarded their masks to try to blend in with the beautiful wedding reception that was taking place.

She hurried to grab Finn as she heard him say "Hello, have I met you before?" to a beautiful woman who looked a little bit more than annoyed.

"I'm so sorry, we haven't fully mastered societal norms with him yet." Rory quickly said while trying to drag Finn away, just in time to see Colin making his way over to another poor unsuspecting group of ladies. She looked over to Logan with a pleaded look in her eyes and he took over for Finn while he saw Rory whisper in Colin's ear and he quickly decided to leave the wedding as well. As they all poured themselves back into the limo they decided to try a different club for the rest of the evening. This time though, they wanted to leave their masks on.

As they pulled up to a store front Finn dragged them to the back of the building, down a staircase and through a maze of hallways that Rory was not so sure she could make it out of there sober, which she was pretty far from. Finally, they reached a club that was unlike anything she had ever seen before. It was as if she was transported back into a 1920's speakeasy. There were girls in flapper dresses, the boys were in suspenders and white shirts. The alcohol was being served only if you knew the code word. It was magical, and it amazed her that after all these years these boys could still surprise her with spots like this. They spent the evening dancing, drinking, until her and Logan were found in a back corner where Rory was thoroughly making sure Logan was corrupted. It was then that everyone decided to call it a night, Rory and Logan for very different reasons than Colin and Finn.

RLRLRL

Back at their place Rory intertwined Logan's hand with hers as she laid across his chest. There was the feeling that she had the morning in London, before the weight of the job and the weight of, well everything else took its toll. There was that feeling of weightlessness, and happiness. She had always had it with Logan, even in their darker days, he always knew exactly how to calm her, even when he was riling her up. As she looked at what he had prepared for her, for them, and the world that was surrounding them she realized she hadn't voiced her feelings about all of it as much as she should have.

"Have I ever told you how thankful I am that you scheduled this trip? It was amazing. It was exactly what I needed, and I feel like I can finally breathe again. Thank you so much for always knowing exactly what I need to help relax and unwind."

"Ace, we have a lot on our plates, we have to be able to communicate and you have to be able to talk to me. I didn't think I needed this break as much as you did, but it turns out after being here, that I did. I do have to ask though, are you seriously thinking about writing this book?"

"I really think I am, it just seems to come at the right time and I think it would be good for me to do."

"I think so too. And it has been on my mind, and when I was sitting in the New York office and I realized that HPG doesn't have an in-house publishing house. We do a lot with newspaper, magazines, obviously on-line as well, but printed books we haven't really worked on."

"I know, I figured I'd just find a different publisher, I have a few in mind."

"Well, I was thinking of finding a publishing company and bringing them into the HPG fold, but who were you thinking of because I can see if I can work out a deal with him. It would be nice to have it all under one umbrella, plus then I can make sure my girl is being treated well."

"Um, honestly? I was thinking about Truncheon Books. They used to be a little publishing house in Philly but they've been churning out a lot of great books and have really made a name for themselves."

"Oh yeah! They were one of the ones I looked at, I was going to offer one of the guys my office in New York if anyone of them were willing to move out here."

"Logan, one of those guys is Jess, remember him? The guy from the pub?"

"Rory, did you honestly think that would bother me? I don't know if you realized this, but I won you a while ago." That smirk was rearing its ugly head again.

"Ha. Ha. Oh, that ego, it's just so irresistible. I just wanted to make sure you had all the facts before I brought my book to them, or before you decided to make them an offer they couldn't refuse."

"That was a terrible impression Ace, honestly."

"It's not my fault! I'm tired."

"Oh no, your exhaustion is all my doing, I'm well aware."

"Changing the subject, do you really think you're going to do this?"

"Well, I need to look at their numbers versus some other companies but if it's a worthwhile investment, why not? I mean, you'd be working with someone you already know and feel comfortable with. I'd have someone in my office here so that way the whole division is fully brought into the company and it's not just some little satellite company we have off to the side. It would be a whole new idea for HPG. Logically, it just makes sense. This book, and this idea could bring a whole new level of revenue to our company than I could have ever thought possible."

"Well, we make quite a little power couple don't we Huntzberger?"

"Like you wouldn't believe Ace."

 **AN: There will be no love triangle, there will be no Jess pining, I'm a ride or die Rory and Logan I just liked how he had helped her with the book idea in the revival and decided to bring that up here.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **Disclaimer: Still own nothing**

"Truncheon Books."  
"Yes, this is Rory Gilmore, I'm looking for Jess Mariano?"

"One moment please."

"Hello, this is Jess."

"Wow, you sound so professional, I even had to go through an assistant to get to you! Am I even important enough to get to call you my friend?"

"I don't know MRS. Huntzberger, Mrs. Editor, I'd say you're pretty up there with your fancy titles. I'm just a lowly co-owner of a mildly successful publishing house, you're married to a dynasty."

"Okay, I think I'd like this to stop now."

"What do you need?"

"Um, I'm in New York and I was wondering if you could meet us for dinner?"

"Us?"

"Yeah, Logan and I, I'm making some changes and I think you'd be able to help me with them. If you can't or it's to awkward to meet I totally understand but I really do hope to be able to use your help if you're willing, and it could work out in your favor too you know? This isn't just a one-way street. But if it's to weird to meet with us I get it. You know what, never mind, this was weird forget I asked."

"Wow Gilmore, that was impressive even for you."

"Well, it's just weird."

"I'll tell you what, I have a few meetings that I was going to do a teleconference for, but I can come to the city and meet with them and you and Logan. As for the weirdness factor, there is none for me, I've heard the stories, I've seen the wedding video, you guys look happy. Everything is good in my world too so it's not like I'll be some jack ass for the simple fact of being a jack ass. Just give me a date and time and I'll work it out."

"Day after tomorrow, 7:30, come to my old apartment."

"Will the mister be home or is this a pregame for just us?"

"Goodbye Jess."

Jess hung up the phone and sighed, he was never a patient person but now he was already going crazy because he felt that whatever Rory needed wasn't going to be a small thing, he didn't expect it to be life changing, but she was clearly planning something. She sounded to frazzled to not be up to something.

RLRLRLRL

Jess rang up to the apartment he used to crash at when he was in town. It had been years since he had stood at this door, it had been years since he had seen Rory honestly. She had gotten so wrapped up at the Times, he started taking less trips, and then suddenly she was gone. She had packed a bag to London and never really looked back. They still kept in touch, but he hasn't seen the new person she had turned into. She had been confident and successful before, but this was new. She had a permanent smile on her face, with a twinkle in her eye that he couldn't quite place. Then Logan walked in and what he thought was a smile before turned into something he had never seen. She looked like she saw the world when he walked in. Then the bouncing started, like a little kid in a candy store, on Christmas morning, with an unlimited budget. She looked like she was going to burst when she saw the folders he was carrying.

"Have you told him yet?"

"NO! I was waiting for you. This does involve both of us."

"Hey guys, I have a feeling I'm the 'him' in this situation and if it involves a sperm donation-" Unbeknownst to Jess, he had a hit a nerve that Logan hadn't even talked to Rory about. He had been thinking about the baby issue just as much as she had, and he couldn't help worry that he was a part of the issue. It was something that he didn't talk to her about because he couldn't take her face as she tried to absolve some of the guilt he was feeling.

"It doesn't." Logan was quick to say, with a glare that Jess hadn't seen since that night in the pub.

"Okay, down boys. Jess don't joke. Let's just get down to business. Jess, I'd like to write a book. I want it to be about my life growing up, about the weird quirks of the town, of the life I led in Stars Hollow and a life with my mom and the memories and traditions she instilled in me. I want to, no I need to do this. I sat down one day and most of it just flew out and I wasn't going to do anything with it, but Logan can't shut up about it and pushing me."

"That's great Rory. Really that is a wonderful idea, but I have a feeling there is something that you're not asking me."

"Well, um, see the thing is, I want you to edit it, and I was hoping that you would consider publishing this?" It was then that Jess noticed two stacks of papers on the table. Rory had placed her hand on one of the stacks. Trying to stop his curiosity from questioning the other stack he had turned his attention back to Rory.

"Of course, I'd be happy to do it. I can't believe you thought I wouldn't, and yeah I'll have to bring it to the other guys for the publishing question, but I'm sure it will be no issue what so ever."

"About the other guys, actually Logan, can you take over this part?"

"Sure Ace. See, it occurred to me a few days ago that Huntzberger doesn't have a publishing house for books."

"Uh oh, already trying to steal an author from me before I even have her?" Logan smirked, as he played with Rory's hair. Thank god he had been around Rory and Lorelai enough to know that these were jokes.

"I've been looking over your numbers, comparing them to some other great publishers, but Rory trusts you. Which means I trust you. We want to bring Truncheon into HPG. We want to keep all of you on in your respective roles. We just want to help you all expand. You guys can still keep your name, you'll just be under our umbrella. This paperwork right here is our offer, take it to your guys, discuss everything, there is no time limit. We would want someone in New York though, whoever you decide to send will get my office, so you know the view won't suck. The pay will be more than sufficient I can promise you that."

With that Jess had to look at the folder staring right at him. As he opened it up it took every ounce of control to not slam it down with wide eyes. Those numbers, those projections couldn't be real. "Now, is this offer contingent on helping Rory in anyway? Not that we wouldn't, but I don't want my guys to feel like they're being pressured into anything."

"No Jess, this offer has absolutely nothing to do with me. I made sure of it." She added, with a very pointed, yet playful glare at Logan, who once again had a smirk on his face.

"I'm not sure what they'll say but this looks beyond fair to me. They will want our lawyers to look it over, but it would surprise me if they said no."

"If they decide to say no, but you want it, the job is yours." Logan made an impulse decision and offered that without a second thought.

"What?!" Rory and Jess both stared at him. Rory was shocked that Logan would offer that, their last meeting hadn't been the greatest, and for him to offer this out of the blue was definitely a shock. But then she realized that this was strictly business. She saw the way he sat up a little taller, his jaw tightened more, and his eyes grew darker when he was in business mode. Damn, he looks sexy like that, she bit her lip as she looked at him with admiration and a little bit of lust. Logan noticed that look on her face and he grinned at her inability to be subtle at all. He quickly kicked her under the table and she snapped out of her thoughts.

Jess was wondering what was going through Logan's mind as he offered up this once in a lifetime opportunity. He would have a salary he couldn't imagine, a corner office that was bigger than Luke's apartment, before and after the renovations. It was all just sitting there, right in front of him.

"Like I said, I don't know what the guys will think, I don't know what will come of this at all, but if they don't take it, if they are stupid and don't jump at this, I'm in."

"Well then, I think this calls for a drink and dinner, what do you say Ace?"

"Oh! Can we go for Indian?"

"NO!" Both men shouted, a little too loudly and a little too in time with each other.

"I officially don't like friendship, not even a little bit." Rory pouted as they made their way out of the apartment and into the busy streets of New York.

RLRLRLRLRL

Two days later Jess called Logan and told him that all of the guys had agreed to the conditions that HPG was offering. The paperwork was done by the end of the week and Jess had started moving into the 'corner office' of his dreams. As the first order of business that he decided to work on was starting to read Rory's book. Her and Logan were headed to London in 3 days and he knew she wanted to know if this book could go anywhere before she turned her resignation letter in, so he promised to have at least some feedback to give her.

It was three and a half hours later and while the red pen had gotten some use, it was no where near the workout it had normally received. With the notes he had made, he made his way down to the makeshift office her and Logan had set up for while they were there. He wasn't thinking when he didn't knock, he swears he wasn't.

"Oh god, hi Jess."

"Wow, I open the door and you two are like shrapnel." Jess said through a smirk, reciting Luke's words from years ago.

"Next time I'll hang a sock on the door." A cocky, self-satisfied grin plastered on Logan's face as he sat down on his side of the desk. Rory on the other hand looked like she was going to hide in the closet until she was at least 5 years older, or at least 10 shades less red. Logan took notice of her appearance and decided to have a little bit of fun. "Oh come on Rory, it's nothing compared to when Colin walked into the Yale apartment while I was supposed to be in London." He turned to Jess "It was so sweet, my buddy thought he'd come check on my girl while I was away, making sure she ate more than takeout and pop tarts. Imagine his surprise when I was checking on my girl just fine."

"Great, I'm done with this conversation, please come find me when we're done with this horrible game of red can Rory get."

"No, no, stay. I have notes on your book." Rory was stopped dead in her tracks, the fear of rejection was now here, she hadn't expected feedback so quickly, and she saw the red pen attached to the first few pages. Now, suddenly, she wanted to abandon ship, call the whole book off.

"Yes! Ace, come on, let's see!" Logan took the papers out of Jess' hands and started flipping through some of the notes. Muttering to himself she heard a few "Mhms, ahh yes, yeps." And other musings of agreements. However, the last phrase out of his mouth really caught Rory's attention. "You want to make it a series of books?"

"What?" Rory nearly shouted, as she grabbed the notes from Logan. She had expected him to eviscerate her book, or at least have more than a little constructive criticism. She never thought that he would want to do more than one book. She didn't have that much to say at all.

"I think it wouldn't be a bad idea, you can do one book about growing up with your mom, before the house, before the grandparents, when it was just you two against the world. The next book can be about how you slowly started to change, how you went from living in that tiny little hamlet and only escaping through books and movies and started seeing the real world. You can show your growth and how your relationship with your family affected you. Plus, I thought, to get some buzz out you can start a twitter, or blog, or small pieces in different papers to talk about all the crazy town stories you have. Start introducing people to the world before they read about it in the book. Create a buzz so to speak. Depending on the timeline, I would say this book can be done and ready to print by summer of next year."

"Jess is right, that is a really good idea. And the timeline sounds reasonable."

"Okay, that all sounds fine, but if I'm going to be writing the book and doing side pieces to create buzz, that means I won't be able to do as much around the offices, or really much of anything with the exception of focusing my attention on this."

"I think that is a perfect idea, we can go back, you can focus on this, and I can not have any distractions at work." Logan winked at her, bringing back the horrible embarrassment of just moments prior.

"Okay then Jess, let's get to work before I leave."

They had spent the next few days working around the clock, and before they knew it they had the first three of 16 chapters done. Rory felt so accomplished as she boarded the jet on her way home. She decided on the way back she would write her letter of resignation to the Sun, knowing that while she could probably stay on for a few more months, it wasn't fair for her or them to be spreading herself so thin. Once she sent off the resignation letter she sunk into the chair next to Logan and breathed a sigh of relief as she put her head on his chest and fell asleep for the remainder of their flight.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Still own nothing

 _For the first year of my life I lived in a mansion that was hidden behind a gate, behind bushes, and behind a semi-pornographic fountain. I was loved by a mother who was constantly trying her best, despite her circumstances, and I was loved by grandparents who loved in a way that they knew at the time, even if it wasn't enough. My mom was the only child of 2 wealthy, influential, and hard-headed people that were completely rattled by my presence. As they should have been, I was as unexpected as you can be, born to parents who barely had their licenses and hadn't even started filling out college applications. I was born in a world where it was expected that I would have a silver spoon in my mouth, and I was, but I was also born with a scarlet B blazed onto my onesies, right next to the adorable puppies and ducks was the constant reminder that I was not in the plan._

 _My mother was always rebellious, but she was 'sleep on a park bench in Paris, form a sub-party, make witty remarks instead of polite D.A.R conversations.' No one expected her to have me, or for my grandparents to allow us to stay, but that surprise was nothing compared to the day my mom turned away from all the money, all the luxuries, and all of the suffocation she was feeling. No one expected to find her in a potting shed in a sleepy little town, in a maid's uniform, but that's where we were. Even if no one bothered to find us for a while._

It was the end of January, there was 8 chapters done of the book, the book that was now scheduled to be released on May 10th, and it felt like it wouldn't get there even if it was completely possible. At least, according to Jess and Logan. Stupid men, what did they know? How were they not seeing the glaring issues? Rory slams her computer shut, and storms out of the London home, making a bee line for Logan's office.

"LOGAN!"

"Dear God, what Ace?" Logan had practically jumped out of his skin when she slammed into his office, there had been some scary people wandering into his office before, he shuddered when he thought of the French businessmen who may not have been intimidating in stature, but were terrifying in manipulation, but no one scared him quite like his wife on the war path.

"EXCUSE ME!? What is with the attitude? I'm stressed and freaking out and this book is crap and what are you doing while I'm so stressed?!" Rory's eyes had an almost golden shine to them, something he had only seen the night of the bridesmaid's incident. This wasn't just agitated Rory, no this was, hide your kids and your wives Rory.

"Well, my lovely bride, I'm trying to work. What are you doing here? Would you like to go to lunch, or a padded room?" The eyes narrowed, but he could still see the fire spitting out of them. Oh yeah, he was going to have fun with this Rory. When she stared at him with her mind trying to formulate what she could possibly say to him at this point without causing a divorce he opened his mouth again. "Want to call me a butt-faced miscreant again Ace?" That smirk, that smirk almost got her an episode on Snapped.

"I want to call you an arrogant, asshole, who has no idea the amount of pressure I'm under! But even if I do, which I haven't because I am obviously a better person than you are!"

"Clearly." Logan deadpanned in the middle of her rant.

"Will it matter what I say because you clearly don't care! I came down here to tell you that I'm mad and stressed and I don't know what to do with this crap book and you're clearly no help whatsoever!" And with that, Rory flew out just as quickly as she had flown in, however, unlike when she had come in Logan was now smiling and knew he should probably stay away from home until 7 at least. As soon as he heard her sigh loudly at the elevator and storm down the stairs, he decided that 8 o'clock was also a marvelous time to get home too.

RLRLRL

Later that evening Logan walked into the apartment waving a white flag as he wandered into the kitchen. He peeked from behind the flag to see Rory standing over the stove with a sheepish look on her face, and once she saw the white flag and his eyes she cast her eyes downward focusing on the food she was preparing.

"I'm really sorry. I'm just stressed, and I took it out on you and I'm really sorry." She mumbled out, still focusing on the boiling pot of spaghetti.

Logan came up behind her with his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek. "Rory, it's okay. I mean, you scared the hell out of me because I thought you were going to bite my head off. I still don't understand why you blew in and then blew out."

"I wanted you to re-read the book, but then I just got more worked up the more I walked down the road the more frustrated I was getting with myself and with the progress and then I walked in—"

"Walked?"

"Stormed in like a hurricane?"

"Better."

"And you freaked out, and then I was hopped up, and I may have overreacted."

"Okay, I'm going to read what you have, even though I'm sure it's great. And while I'm reading, I'm going to watch you finishing dinner because you look great while you're making me food."

"Oh, so you like the whole housewife thing? Just want me barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen?" The air in the room stood still for a minute before Logan smiled and quickly said "I love you in anyway I can get you. Now get cooking little missus!"

As she set the table and doled out the dinner, she watched him come in from the living room and set down the pages he had in his hand.

"I think I've figured out the issue, but I want you to be open minded."

"I am always open minded, it's one of my better qualities."

"Ace, you have many wonderful qualities, open-mindedness is not one of them. Now, no more interrupting. I just got off the phone with Jess and he agrees. We think that you're trying to extend this book into too many chapters, you have 8 and you're getting frustrated because you thought you would need 16. But, I think you can finish this book at the time where you guys move into the house you have now. That would put you right around chapter 12. The writing is good, but it's hard to fill it like how you want because a lot of those memories are from when you were so young. So, I think this is a great introduction into your world, but it needs to be just that, an introduction."

"What you're saying is that, I'm almost done!?" As a wave of relief shot over Rory's face she plopped down into the dining room chair.

"Sure Ace, if that's all you want to take from that, then sure. But we're also talking about an extra book. Plus you'll have the book tour across the U.S. for the month of May. A book release party the Friday after your book is published. Does this sound okay because Jess has to let his secretary know so she can start prepping everything?"

"That's fine! I'll have more time to write that. Okay, so tomorrow I'll dive back into it. Tonight, we're eating and tuning out the rest of the world. Sound good?"

"Sounds perfect."

RLRLRLRL

The next week Rory slipped out into the busy London streets in the driver's seat of her car, she had left about 15 minutes after Logan had left, and while she felt bad about not telling Logan where she was going, she knew she had to get answers. She didn't want him knowing that she was going to the OB to see if she was what was wrong, the thought that he would put any of this blame on himself made her feel awful. With that thought, she decided to go through this part alone. She knew he would be here in a heartbeat but the thought of his face falling if there was something wrong with either of them would just break her, more than she already was broke at this point.

As she laid on the exam table she saw the ultrasound machine and her heart fell into her stomach. She instinctively reached for Logan's hand before she remembered the choice she had made. Luckily, she didn't have to much time to think about it as the doctor breezed in quickly.

"Good morning Rory, my name is Dr. Gaffney I'm here to do the exam. Can you explain what your concerns are?"

"Well, my husband and I have been trying for around 8 months, and I know it's not a lot of time, but I just want to know what I can do? You see, my mom had me when she was 16 so I just always assumed that once even one goalie was down, there would be a goal. But, well now I'm just worried."

"Eight months isn't a terribly long time, but I know in this situation it can feel like forever. So, I'm going to get some tests ready and I will hopefully have some answers for you."

Three hours, 2 ultrasounds, and more vials of blood drawn than Rory knew she could lose, she was walking out of the doctor's office. She should have answers from the blood draw within the day, and the ultrasound looked clear which provided her with some relief. She had been terrified there was going to be a cancer, or some blockage, but it seemed that everything was clear. With this new information in mind, she decided to get in her car and go to lunch.

Six blocks away Logan was walking out of a doctor's office, he had told Rory he had meetings all day, so he wouldn't be able to talk much today. The truth was that after her barefoot and pregnant comment he had decided to go see if there was something that he was doing wrong. What if he was the reason they weren't getting what they were wanting? He had been told to expect his results in the next 24-48 hours and decided to head out to lunch as well.

As he walked into a small bar he saw a woman who looked remarkably like Rory sitting with her head in her hands at the bar. He knew it was her instinctually, but he was proven correct when he saw her look up at him and with a shocked, but slightly sad smile. As he sidled up next to her at the bar he slid his business card over to her. "Can I buy you a drink?" With a wink she snuggled under his arm and into his chest and they both ate in a comfortable silence until Rory's phone rang.

"Good afternoon Rory, this is Dr. Gaffney's office, do you have a moment to talk?"

"Yes, of course."

"Well, we've received your test results, all seems to look fine, we'd like to revisit if you have not had any success before December."

"So, I just have to wait in a limbo until then?!" Rory's voice started rising, and cracking. Causing Logan to look up at her with concern in his eyes.

"Not in limbo, we will still be happy to monitor you, just to make sure. However, we feel that it would be best to not try outside methods since we don't have a direct cause."

"Okay, thank you I guess."

As Rory ended the call she looked at Logan and knew she was going to have to explain everything. And she did, she explained the guilt she was feeling, the tests she had that morning, and when she was through Logan held her hand and explained just how he had spent his morning as well.

"Apart from the blood work, it sounds like your morning was tad different than mine was." Rory said with a small smile, effectively breaking the tension, that the didn't realize had been hanging in the air. Once they were done with their meal they paid their bill, Rory promised she was heading back home, while Logan made his way to the office, waiting for his phone call to come sooner rather than later.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own anything GG related, just having fun.

A/N: Once again, thank you all so much for the reviews

It was 2 days until her book launch party and as she and Logan ate dinner before catching the jet back to New York they decided to go over her schedule again.

"Okay, so we will be in New York for a week, then you will head back to London and I will be starting the tour, correct?"

"As we've had this conversation 6 times, this week, yes babe."

"But, do you have to come back to London? You should become my trophy husband! You can be at all my book signings, hearing my same passage being read every night. Then at night you can perform your 'husbandly duties' and then I'll roll you out for the next event."

"You know, as lovely as being your boy toy sounds, I do have a job. I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but I do own 55% of a pretty successful company." As Logan grabs one of her books sitting in the apartment he points to the HPG logo that is on the binding. "I believe it's this company."

"Okay, fine, I just thought that as the newest, hottest, and debut author of HPG Truncheon I'd get an escort throughout the mean streets of the U.S.A but it appears you're fine with me being left to fend for myself." Rory was acting dramatic, she knew she was. But, it was getting harder and harder not to. She wanted him there with her, she didn't want to go through this book tour alone. She didn't want him on another continent, far away from her. She kept thinking about all she would miss while she was gone as she packed her last suitcase and rolled it to the front door and down to the waiting town car.

She wasn't going to be there for dinner with him, she wasn't going to be able to sleep next to him every night, there would be a sudden decrease in banter. There would be so much missing in her life that she wasn't sure she knew how to handle it.

As they boarded the plane and took off Logan noticed that Rory was fast asleep within minutes. He knew why, she had been working overtime to get this book finished. There were so many nights he had to drag her back from their office before the sun came up, or even more nights where she had fallen asleep hunched over her desk. But the moment he saw her face when she opened her finished book for the first time was everything he had ever wanted for her. It was a happiness he had never seen, not when she worked for the Times, not when she decided to uproot her life for them, it was a face of belonging. She had done exactly what she was supposed to do.

Not only had she been stressed about the book, but the baby issue as well. However, that thought made Logan feel sick. His test results had come in the day after hers had, and they were perfectly normal. Yet they were now a year into trying and nothing. He kept trying to push that thought into the back of his head, but he just couldn't. She wanted a baby, and so did he and for some reason it just wasn't happening. It wasn't in the cards for them for reasons he didn't know. If any of the tests came back with even an inkling of an issue they would have thrown the money at it and tried to fix it. They had more money than they knew what to do with, and now they couldn't use it for the thing that they wanted the most.

As he started to fall asleep he snuggled Rory closer than he had been previously and fell asleep for the remainder of the flight.

RLRLRLRLRLRLR

The party was in full swing and Rory was in her element. There were other authors that HPG Truncheon had picked up, there was some big wigs from corporate, but most importantly every member of her family was there. Including her mother and now step-father who had finally made it official in February.

"Wow babe, this party is amazing! Also, do I get a signed copy, because just in case the Dragonfly goes belly up I'd like to have something to sell on Ebay."

"I'm not sure it will ever be worth that but sure!" Rory laughed as she signed the book and gave it back to her mom.

"How are you doing kid? This is a lot to take in."

"It is, and I'm fine. I mean I'm so happy about this book, and it's amazing and I love it, there's just a lot on my mind."

"The baby stuff?"

"Yeah. I know that it probably worked out for the best because now I can go on this book tour which is amazing, but it's just a lot on my mind."

"I know, but at least you have a plan. Once you get back from the book tour you're going to discuss other options with your doctor, right?"

"Exactly. That's what I have to focus on right now, otherwise I'll go crazy." As Rory finished this, she felt Logan tug on her elbow.

"Hey Ace, they want you to read a passage and say a few words. You ready?"

"As I'll ever be. Although I'll never understand why I have to do public speaking."

"That's a great question, it's lucky you're not going on tour to, oh, I don't know, promote this book. Did we make a bad investment in you?"

"Oh, my funny, funny boy." And with that, Rory walked onto the podium and delivered the passage that she will be for the next few months. _"Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I can see us, we're almost floating through an Inn that is now empty of the furniture that I have been using as a jungle gym, or as a book nook, for years. My mom tells me that it was during the time where the Inn was going through renovations. One night we snuck in and my mom told me about all the plans she had for us, to move into a wonderful house, where I would have my own room and my books needed their own room. But that night, dancing around the Inn that I had been living in for 10 years as we were about to embark on our next journey. She showed me more in those 10 years, in a small potting shed, than some get to see in a lifetime. My mom made sure that with every day I had a new memory, and that's a lesson I hope to pass down to my own kids, that no matter what happens they'll have us to show them that there is beauty in the everyday and that is so easy to make a memory out of nothing."_

"I want to thank everyone for coming, for HPGT for putting their faith in me, to my mother for inspiring me and giving me a life worth loving and to my husband, who has given me more faith, and love and understanding. It has been amazing getting to live this past year and a half by your side. I could not imagine doing any of this without you. So, please, everyone eat, and drink and grab a book."

LRLRLRLRLRLR

It was the end of the week and Rory and Logan had one more night out before he left for London and she left for Boston. He was waiting in the living area of the suite they had rented out and was focusing on the pile of work he had in his inbox when the bedroom door opened and out walked Rory in the infamous red dress.

"I just figured, why not wear the dress that started it all? I want to leave you with a good memory after all." Without a second thought Logan closed his computer and scooped her up and brought her back to their room, effectively cancelling their original plans. Who really needs to see "Hamilton" on Broadway anyway. _"Any play is a painful play for me."_ He had jokingly told her when she had suggested it, earning him a small smack to the arm.

As they laid there together that night she kept tracing her fingers down his chest, trying to remember everything she could.

"What are you doing there Ace?"

"Getting inspiration for those late-night text messages." She said, with a wink to her eye but a sadness in her voice that couldn't be masked.

"Hey, it's 8 weeks, and I'll make some excuse to come back over to check on you. I promise, plus there is a few days where you have a break if you really feel like making a break for it and coming to visit me. We've been apart for longer, and you see this ring? I'm not going anywhere. As long as you come back to me, I'm always there."

"I'm just not prepared for this, I thought I could handle it but it feels daunting now. I can't imagine being without you."

"I'll miss you more than you know."

As he went to board his plane the next morning, Logan's phone buzzed _*I believe it's your turn to say hi to William and Harry.*_

LRLRLRLRLRLR

He hadn't heard from her in 24 hours, she checked in constantly, it had been 4 weeks since her tour started, she was halfway though. And everyday she checked in any chance she got. Whether it was a small 'Thinking of you.' Or a lengthier one detailing how each city was, she always checked in. He looked at his phone again, hoping that he had missed a notification somewhere, but still his phone was silent. Well not silent, but he hadn't heard from her and the panic was growing with every passing second.

Another hour passed, and he decided he couldn't take it anymore. As he bolted out of his office he told his secretary that any calls that weren't from Rory were to be sent to voicemail. He would handle them all when he could. As he pulled up to his home he had one plan, pack a bag, get to the airport, get to Austin which is where she was supposed to be. The only thing calming him down was that he hadn't heard from the security detail he had hired, they would have alerted him if something had happened.

He stormed into their home, he had hardly been here without her, it just felt so wrong and cold. He couldn't handle how empty it felt without her. But when he entered this time, something felt off, not bad off but different. As he was running towards their room, getting ready to grab the suitcase out of the hall closet he stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a figure sitting on the couch.

"Ace! Oh my gosh, I've been trying to get a hold of you. I was so worried. I was coming home to pack a bag and come see you." As he said that he wrapped her up in a hug that she had never expected. It took her breath away and she could barely breathe. She had missed everything about him, every smile he gave, the ways in which he could ramble as well as her. She had missed it all.

"Logan, I just had to come see you. I'm sorry, I meant to tell you but once I got it in my mind, I just put all the plans in motion. I didn't want to talk because I wanted to surprise you. I'm so sorry babe."

"It's okay. God, I'm just so happy you're here."

"Me, too. You have no idea."

They sat in silence for a few moments before Rory spoke again.

"Logan?"

"Yeah?"

"We're finally pregnant."

 **A/N: That's all folks. Thank you so much for allowing me to do this, it has been amazing and so much fun. Thank you all again!**


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